


An Early Return

by Puzzled



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: F/M, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Pre-Star Wars: Rebels, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2018-11-30 14:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 60,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11465352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puzzled/pseuds/Puzzled
Summary: The Emperor had been killed, his fleets scattered, and admirals defeated.  Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade have found themselves in a galaxy where all their work has been undone, with other stranger changes lurking.





	1. I

> _The Galactic Empire has come into its might and reigns supreme over the galaxy. The Emperor's ships and armies are numberless, and beyond them lurks the ineffable power of the Sith. All opposition has been smothered beneath tyranny and fear. There will be resistance, there will be rebellion, but four years after the fall of the Jedi there is no hope. The two will return together._

* * *

 

“You’re nervous.”  
  
Mara snorted, but her reaction was enough to prove Luke’s point. The two of them were in an empty office in the government complexes of Coruscant, no it was Imperial Center again, staring at a grey monolith.  
  
“I’m not saying that breaking into Ubiqtorate headquarters is easy and that you shouldn’t be concerned but if I can feel-“  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” Mara turned away from the window to see Luke sitting at the desk resting his chin on his joined hands. “We’re going to go in, get her, and get out. No muss, no fuss.”  
  
Luke smoothly rose to his feet, his hands moving to check the holster at the small of his back and the pocket holding his light saber. “I’ve thought that before.”  
  
“Well unlike you, I don’t always wing it. Just stick to the plan.” She pushed past him and out into the labyrinthine corridors. Luke fell into position next to her, his stolen uniform showing him to be a star fighter colonel who wouldn’t look out of place with the bureaucratic nonentity she was dressed as. The combination worked on several levels, in more martial areas she’d be seen as his visitor, and in the civil sectors she’d provide his excuse.   
  
Mara punched the button to summon the lift and resisted the urge to pull out her sliced orders. The holes in security she’d been trained to exploit still existed and with the priority she’d claimed no one should question her. Luke was quiet as they waited, and silent as they descended, stopping only for others to board and exit. Eventually they reached the lobby and strode for the exit purposefully.  
  
The nerve center of imperial intelligence was surrounded by half a kilometer of paved stone and the wind whipped across it. She glanced at Luke, making sure that his dark jacket wasn’t betraying the presence of his weapons in the stiff breeze.  
  
“Relax.”  
  
This time she only raised an eyebrow, enough to stop him from saying anymore. They’d been able to go over the office they’d been in for bugs, but Mara didn’t trust the spies to not have monitors transcribing the words of everyone approaching the building.   
  
In any case, they reached the doors without further incident. The sudden absence of the wind made the building’s silence oppressive, like a tomb. Luke gave her another meaningful look that she ignored.  
  
“Brianna Cenasca and guest.” The functionary at the scanner took her proffered pass and inserted into his computer. His helmet prevented them from seeing his face, but Mara couldn’t feel anything but boredom.  
  
His emotion didn’t change as the machine beeped and ejected her orders. “You’re good to go Ms. Cenasca, and sir I’ll need to see identification before you go through.” Mara walked through the scanner without waiting as Luke handed the guard his ID. There was a flicker of attention from the man that quickly vanished as Luke handed over his blaster before the Jedi followed her in.  
  
They both entered the main building, this time with Luke slightly behind her. Mara couldn’t help but relax a little as they walked through the dark and quiet corridors. This and places like it had been her home and hunting ground for years, searching out treason for the Emperor.   
  
Without pausing they passed a guard station, their images clearly matched what he expected and she heard Luke let out a small breath. She didn’t, now that they were on mission she wouldn’t let herself show weakness, but she sympathized. They’d just reached the last point where their sliced orders would justify their presence, and from now on they had only their skills, her knives, his light saber, and her exhaustive knowledge of the building and Imperial protocol to guide them. Plenty.  
  
The elevator opened to one of her long memorized override codes, ideally it would give them access to most floors as well as loop the cameras to hid their presence. Luke punched in the floor they needed using his mechanical hand to avoid leaving fingerprints. For a second she stared, it was so odd to see him without his glove or synthskin, but for this mission he’d chosen to forgo both. The acceleration as the car shot upward brought her back, and she rolled her shoulders to release any tension.   
  
With a cheery tone that was utterly out of place the elevator stopped as they reached their floor. Mara took the lead, walking down the long hallway as memories flooded her. She’d spent years living on the corridor, leaving for tutors and trainers and only returning to sleep. The doors were numbered just as she remembered, and part of her wanted to run her hands along them. All too soon they were at her old room and she paused. For once Luke didn’t say anything, giving her time to recollect herself. After an unconscionable moment she bent down, ready to pick the first lock she’d ever cared about.  
  
It was easy, almost too easy, and it barely took her a second. The door hissed open and dread filled the corridor, even as the force screamed in warning. Luke’s grip on her shoulder was like iron as he yanked her back behind him, his unlit saber in his hand as they stared into her old dormitory.  
  
Vader was there, and in a curious mirror her younger self was huddled behind him.   
  
“I had doubted my master.” Vader’s low rumble overpowered the hissing of his respirator. “But I shouldn’t underestimate him, nor the foolishness of Jedi.”  
  
He stepped forward and the two of them retreated, Luke stretching and shifting his shoulders in preparation.   
  
“It will be a pleasure to kill you, or perhaps I’ll let the girl do it.” The Sith Lord exuded menace and darkness as he approached, but Luke had had enough. He straightened, not that it mattered much against the hulking cyborg, ignited his blade and held it in a low guard.   
  
“You want to doom another to your fate?”  
  
Vader’s only reply was the snap hiss of his own blade and a sudden strike, shocking in its speed.  
  
Luke met it, and for the first time on the planet dropped his shields as he gathered the force around him. The omnipresent darkness lifted, and Mara felt the terror that had filled the back of her mind with Vader’s appearance vanish.  
  
For a frozen instant the two duelists were stuck in place, then with a snarl Vader broke the deadlock. Their blades were arcs of light as they spun through the air, leaving gaps of spitting molten metal as they slashed through the walls. Neither seemed willing to give up ground as they hammered at each other, two masters releasing their full power at point blank range.   
  
Shockingly Vader broke first, dodging back away from Luke’s thrust. It was uncharacteristic but wise, Luke’s smaller stature gave him an edge at the range they were dueling, nullifying Vader’s reach even as the force negated his superior strength.   
  
Whatever the reason Luke pressed his advantage, attempting to close again as he flicked testing strikes against his father. It was more aggressive than he’d ever been dueling her, and it took an embarrassing moment for her to realize why. She rushed forward past the smoking and sparking wires into her old room and found her younger self crouched against the wall.   
  
She reached to grab her, only for her attempt to be deflected by an amateurish block. Silently cursing she swatted aside her defenses and with an effort of will forced her to fall asleep. Scooping up the three-year-old she threw her over her shoulder and darted back into the hallway.   
  
Luke and Vader were still furiously battling, but Luke spared a glance to see that she’d retrieved their objective. He took a step back and seemed to center himself, adjusting his grip on his saber as Vader thundered forward.   
  
The Jedi didn’t willingly cede ground now that Mara had the girl, but he wasn’t attacking with the ferocity he’d needed to drive Vader back. Another glance showed his strain, he was clearly hoping she had a plan.  
  
“Stall!” She didn’t need to see him to feel his exasperation as he drew even more deeply on the force.   
  
Mara turned and ran, searching for a window as she fumbled for her beckon call. She had been sure that there was access to the outside just around the corner, but it must have been remodeled at some later point. There was the slightest tug from the force and she followed it, kicking open a door to reveal an open-air courtyard. Mara hammered the button that would summon her ship and reached out for Luke.   
  
She didn’t know how he could sense her, the force was raging as two of its strongest fought, but she could feel his acknowledgement before he returned his full focus to the battle.   
  
The readout on the call was dropping rapidly as the  _Fire_  approached, but she knew the TIEs couldn’t be far behind. As intent as she was on her ship she still noticed the other door to the courtyard opening and a knife was flying before the entrant could react.   
  
The blood of her language tutor stained the ground as it drained from his torn throat. Mara forced down any regret as she palmed another knife, her younger self on her shoulder made it harder to draw them than she’d like.  
  
Her beckon trilled as her ship came within one kilometer, she could hear the engines roaring as it swung towards them. Before she could call for Luke he was there, slipping aside from one of Vader’s blows as he backed through the entrance.   
  
He was drenched in sweat and his black coat had a long cut in it. Vader was similarly coated in greyish dust, but neither let that stop them as they continued to battle, both sensing that the end of their fight was near. Luke clearly wanted to use the open space the courtyard gave him, but he was once again restricted by having to stay between Mara and Vader.  
  
The arrival of her ship was the signal for their finale, the two of them blurred, their blows ripping through the air as Mara ran to the controls, dropping her younger self carelessly on the deck.   
  
_Now Luke!_  
  
Her call reverberated through the force, and his answer was just as loud as he somehow- impossibly- battered Vader’s saber out of position. Through the cockpit windows she saw him land a brutal kick to his father’s chest before spinning and running. Mara hammered the repulsors, trusting that he could make the jump, and then he was aboard slamming the button to close the ramp.   
  
She punched the sublight engines, accelerating straight up as she pulled up sensor feeds. The Home Fleet wasn’t moving yet, but a fighter wing was vectoring towards them and was uncomfortably close.  
  
Luke chose that moment to appear, his face was ashen and he barely had a grip on his saber but he still managed to pick up the girl and buckle her in before taking the copilot’s seat.  
  
“No muss, no fuss?”  
  
She glanced over, and was relieved to see a mocking grin on his face. They might be back in time in a hostile galaxy ruled by a tyrannical empire, but at that moment it didn’t matter. She’d saved herself from the Emperor, with that and Skywalker at her side the entire Imperial Navy could be against them and she wouldn’t worry.  
  
“Shut up, and start plotting our jump.”  
  


* * *

“Security is really lax compared to my first trip to Coruscant.” Of course Skywalker would comment even as he was drenched in sweat and there was a slight tremor in his artificial hand that indicated his duel had taxed him more than he would like to admit. “We didn’t even need fighter support to escape.”

  
“Xizor is lucky that he died on his skyhook.” The aftermath of that little incident had sent shockwaves through the security apparatus. “Vader was a mercy.”  
  
She immediately regretted saying the name, Luke’s face went blank and his presence in the force was muted. The ship didn’t need any attention while it was hyperspace, whatever had brought them here didn’t seem likely to repeat, but by busying herself she gave Luke time and silence.  
  
“He’s not the man I last met, not yet at least.” His voice was firm, outwardly without doubt, but if that was what he truly felt Mara would know. “He turned back to the light once, and he will again.”  
  
There wasn’t anything she could say to that, so she simply leaned back and stretched. Craning her head back she caught a flash of red, and she was forced to confront the other awkward topic. Luke didn’t let her ignore it, clearly wanting to change the subject.  
  
“What do you plan to do with her? Thanks to my little display-“  
  
“I know, we’re on the radar.” Mara had hoped to simply extract her younger self and then vanish into the galaxy. Luke’s fight with Vader had ruined that. “We’re changing names, dying our hair, irises, the works.”  
  
“This ship will have to go too, or at least it needs quite a lot of modification.”  
  
“We can’t sell it.” The words slipped out of her without conscious thought, and she had to scramble for a justification. “It’s the most advanced ship running and it’s-“  
  
“Your home, right.” Luke never seemed to realize how annoying his habit of saying exactly what people were thinking was, probably because most people were too intimidated to complain. His raised eyebrow suggested that he might know, and simply chose to do it anyway. “We need to change the hull shape and the thruster signature. I assume you have enough fake transponder codes that that’s not a worry.”  
  
“Of course, and I’ve got EVA suits, we can just stop off a lane and get started on the modifications before we dock anywhere. It’s a shame you didn’t bring your droid so that it could do the welding.” Luke grimaced, the loss of his droid, more than that the loss of everything he had in the future, was a raw wound.  
  
“Do you have any thoughts on where can make port? I always had the luxury of Alliance bases or Han’s encyclopedic knowledge of havens.”  
  
“And you think I’m any better? I had safe houses, the Navy, anywhere that Imperial power ran. Past that Karrde’s network barely exists now, and smuggler’s dens are all so transient that the ones I know probably don’t exist.”  
  
“It needs to be somewhere quiet, normally I’d try to get lost in the shuffle but we’re way too hot for that.”  
  
“Yeah, the Hutts won’t dare obstruct Vader when he’s this driven, they know that he hates them.” Mara pulled up the navicomputer as she felt Luke’s full attention move to her, it was almost burning in its sudden intensity.  
  
“He hated the Hutts?” Of course Luke was curious about his father, it was easy to forget that she’d met the man far more than he had.  
  
“All slavers really, the Emperor made him work with them just to demonstrate that he was in charge.”  
  
A sudden motion behind them cut them off before Luke could turn the conversation into a Vader biography. Spinning to meet her younger self’s eyes she wasn’t sure if she would have preferred that.  
  
“The Emperor will come for me.” No, she would definitely have preferred that.   
  
“He won’t.” Luke’s force presence suddenly filled the cockpit, to her it was warm but the young girl shrank in on herself. “We won’t let him.”  
  
Her fear only lasted a second before she conquered it. “You can’t scare me, you’re nothing to him.”  
  
“What makes you say that?” Luke sounded more amused than anything.  
  
“You’re running from him.”  
  
“Well I’m a match for Vader.”  
  
“If you can’t beat one of His servants-“  
  
“It doesn’t matter. You’re not going back.” Mara had had enough of the two arguing. “The Emperor doesn’t care about you, and if he’ll happily kill you just to hurt Luke or me.”  
  
They’d glanced at each other before, but this was the first time the girl was truly looking at her and Mara could feel her confusion. It was something that she knew well, the force telling her something impossible that she couldn’t accept even as it hammered at her.   
  
“Who are you?” She didn’t answer, Mara knew herself, and that she’d never accept the truth from anyone else.  
  
“Until further notice you’re in our care and will follow our instructions. Don’t try to escape, and don’t try to contact anyone, we’ll stop you.”  
  
She looked mutinous, and for the first time showed her age. She opened her mouth to protest but Luke raised a hand. There was a sense of impending, like the quiet before a thunderstorm, and then nothing, the little urges that the force gave were absent.  
  
“He can’t sense you now, and he won’t hear you. You’re stuck with us for now and might as well make the most of it.”  
  
“Think of it as a training exercise if nothing else.” Mara had always liked the practical lessons, her first pseudo mission outside her quarters remained a cherished memory. Hopefully she’d be too overcome with the excitement to think about her circumstances.  
  
“Alright.” She caught a glimmer of amusement from Luke, the recalcitrance of her younger self seemed to entertain him. “Even though you stole-“  
  
“Rescued,” Kidnapped” Luke and Mara spoke over each other.  
  
“I’ll play along. But he’ll come for me.” With that she crossed her arms and went silent.


	2. II

The main hold of the Fire was emptier than usual, the crates and various necessities of a traveling smuggler/troubleshooter/liaison pushed to the bulkheads. Young Mara was there too, watching as Luke held off a furious barrage launched by her older self. He knew that their motions were barely visible to the girl, but she still stared intently. It was odd to see some parts of the Mara he knew emerge in the tiny child.   
  
He couldn’t spare much thought for her though, not if he wanted to win. Mara was a talented fighter, long years of training and natural skill made her a dangerous opponent, but she’d never been able to fully surrender to the force. Luke could, and the power of the Skywalker line would bring him victory. Normally, at least.   
  
In this darker galaxy he couldn’t exert his full strength, not unless he wanted to alert the Emperor and his agents. It wouldn’t give them coordinates exactly, but the disturbance would be enough for Inquisitors and others, Vader-  
  
He’d missed Mara’s sweep with her leg and he found himself slammed to the unforgiving deck with a saber at his throat. His weapon wasn’t anywhere useful, so he powered it down and waited for her to do the same.  
  
“I guess you win.”  
  
“The first of many.” She didn’t make any effort to hide her elation as she looked down at him, he could plead distraction but he didn’t want to damage her moment. The chime of the hyperdrive ended up doing that, and she withdrew as he stood up and followed her to the cockpit.  
  
“So what’s at Tor Imeld?” Mara didn’t look up as she brought her ship smoothly out of hyperspace.   
  
“Hopefully nothing, they just export massive amounts of grain and their exchange dictates food prices for a decent part of the sector.” Luke busied himself with the typical duties of a copilot as he waited for her to continue. “However, Karde once told me that the gamblers here are the worst he’s ever met.” She looked over to him and smirked. “Something about farmboy honesty.”  
  
“Uncle Owen did always say that you can’t lie to a vaporator.”  
  
“Exactly. An entire planet raised with wholesome life lessons like that is exactly why I’m going to take them to the cleaners and fund our continuing excursions.”  
  
Luke couldn’t help but feel a little offended by that as the third passenger wandered in. “You’re going to do the gambling?”  
  
He could feel Mara’s amusement rolling off her, something she made no effort to hide. “Which one of us was raised from the cradle to be a spy?”  
  
“Me.” Her flummoxed expression as she twisted to see her doppelganger was almost enough to distract him, but he had his priorities.  
  
“We’re going to play for who gets to rob these good honest people blind. I might not have been taught from a young age, but I did learn from the masters.”  
  


* * *

Getting Skywalker into a bar fight was hardly the worst thing she’d ever done to him. If she had to make a list it would rank pretty far behind planning to kill him for nearly a decade, and just behind marching him through Myrkr’s jungles. However, she’d intended those things. The bar fight was a bit more spontaneous.  
  
It was fun to watch him fight though, the ruins of the sabacc table behind him along with the groaning players. Without his sabre she hadn’t known what to expect. She knew that he was at least competent since he could fight her somewhat evenly, but through natural inclination and training she set the style. Free to act without true opposition Skywalker was a different animal.  
  
If she had considered the matter before she’d inadvertently revealed the cards hidden up his sleeve, something they’d discuss later, she’d have thought he’d have some echani stlye, all flowing motion and smooth throws. Instead, like in many things he took after his father.  
  
The other fighters were being brutalized. Nothing he did overtly drew on the force, but every step and movement was sharp and precisely gauged. He dodged the rough haymakers and tackles of the farmers before lashing out with controlled violence. Those he struck didn’t get up again, clutching themselves and groaning if they were lucky, laying on the floor silently if they weren’t. That had to be the force she was sure. Head injuries were tricky, especially on other species, and Skywalker wouldn’t risk killing unnecessarily.  
  
At last he stood alone, everyone else who’d considered fighting him awed into stillness by the martial display they’d just witnessed. So was Mara to an extent, she really hadn’t expected him to be able to knock out a wookie in hand to hand combat, but he was full of surprises.   
  
Skywalker strode back to the detritus of the table, the men he’d been gambling with all the worst for wear. He scooped up his credits, then glancing at the table, flipped his cards over and showed the dealer who nodded with naked fear on his face. He grabbed what was left of the pot and left. The entire bar watched him walk out in silence.  
  
“Do you think he’ll teach me to fight like that?” Her younger voice rang out and Mara didn’t have to look down to known that there’d be an angelic expression of innocence staring up at her. Inwardly she cursed before dragging the girl with her before the other patrons could think through the implications.  
  
She opened herself up to the force as they emerged into the street, sending a question to Luke. He sent back a confused message that she interpreted as him saying he’d meet them at the ship. Taking an intentionally circuitous route, she set out to join him.  
  
“You were cheating?” Mara had barely waited for the ramp to close before confronting him. “I thought you were using the force!” Skywalker winced, she could see a bruise forming and could sense a general ache. He hadn’t been as untouchable as she’d thought.  
  
“Of course, I was cheating.” He was headed for the galley, the few painkillers they had were there. “It’s the only way to win enough money to be worth it quickly.”  
  
The bald admittance stunned her for a second before she regained her head of steam. “That’s what the Force is for! You just read their minds!”  
  
Luke gave her an unamused look. “How many times have you cheated at sabacc?” He popped open the pill bottle before throwing back two without water. “Playing like that just reveals you can see other people’s hands, they won’t realize how of course, but it’s pretty obvious to an talented player.”  
  
“And stealing cards isn’t?”  
  
“Unless a ‘helpful observer’ suggests that they check my sleeves, no.” He was massaging his left hand, his knuckles were torn and she could feel that he was doing something with the force to soothe them. “I can sense when they’re getting truly suspicious, and get rid of them. Except of course, when a trained force user ambushes me with the idea.”  
  
“Whatever.” She followed him to the cockpit, and took her seat as she prepped for takeoff. Moving and moving fast was their best way to ensure they weren’t followed, and they still needed to finish their modifications to ensure the ship was unrecognizable. “How did you punch out the wookie anyway?”  
  
His grin was especially sardonic. “Haven’t you heard? I’m Luke Skywalker.”  
  


* * *

  
“How do you feel about covering up the dorsal canons?” Luke was floating outside the Fire, a selection of hull plates hanging in the void with him.   
  
“Just make the blister around it weak enough that we can blast it off if we have to.” Mara’s voice was strained over the radio. Originally they’d both planned to work on the modifications, but it soon became obvious that the little girl was planning on signaling for help. Considering that emergency beacons were purposefully easy to set off that meant one of them had to watch her at all times. Luke had just finished his shift, and he’d never been so happy to get into a cramped and sweaty vacuum suit before.   
  
“Can do.” They’d been working on modifying the ship for the past three days, and the Jade’s Fire was if not unrecognizable, dramatically different. The smooth lines and the aggressively swept wings were no more; across the silhouette strange protrusions jutted forth, almost all riveted on with explosive bolts. If they needed performance they could be jettisoned, but until then they made the hull shape different enough to fool scanners. If they’d done anything other than escaped from the Ubiqtorate headquarters and then blasted through the Coruscanti home fleet he thought Mara wouldn’t have disfigured her ship so, but when hiding from everyone in the galaxy they needed every advantage.   
  
“Has the navicomputer finished updating itself for the new drive specs?” Their engine spectrum was another casualty of the camouflage. In the time they’d come from the Sienar drives were fairly common, but twenty something years before they were invented they were distinctive. Contaminating the engines with a few energetic isotopes and running at a less efficient frequency shifted the signature at the cost of speed and power.  
  
“Maybe if you just worked instead of talking so much we’d be finished and you could look for yourself.” There was no real bite in the words, and Luke was relieved she was still in a decent mood. He was probably about to change that.  
  
“So, after I get the last few bumps done what are we going to do?” He tugged on one of the plates with the force, gently moving it into position as he waited for her. It was a long silence, Luke had the time to place and rivet two more plates before the channel went live again.  
  
“What do you mean?” Her voice was more controlled this time, the slight humor he’d thought he’d heard before was mostly gone.  
  
“We’ve-you’ve got a tricked out ship, a toddler who’s actively looking to get back to the only home she’s ever known, and a bounty that’s smaller than mine but still pretty impressive. What’s your next step?”  
  
“Why do you keep saying  _I’ve_  got those things?” He’d known she’d seize on that.  
  
“Well no matter what you do, if you want my help I’ll stick around.” She snorted.  
  
“Please Skywalker. If I just went to a random planet and settled down you’d come with me? A Jedi might not be supposed to crave adventure, but you certainly do.”  
  
She was more right than he’d like to admit. “Still.”  
  
After enough of a pause that he was half worried that she’d kick on the engines and leave him the radio crackled once again. “You wouldn’t have asked if you weren’t thinking of something already. So, what is it?”  
  
“The Rebellion.” He bulled forward before she could refuse out of hand. “If nothing else it’ll be a chance for Mara to have a semi-normal childhood, if she went to a regular school she’d be in contact with the Empire in minutes.”  
  
“That’s your main reason.” The drives still weren’t on, which he couldn’t help but see as a good sign. Of course, she could just be waiting for him to finish with the plating before leaving him stuck in deep space.  
  
“No, but it is one. I don’t know how we were sent back, but we have a chance to do so much-“  
  
“You had a chance to kill Vader, that would be millions saved easy.”  
  
Nothing came to mind after that, and Luke was grateful to have something to do with his hands. He knew that the way he saw his father was unique in the galaxy, that he was the only one who saw Anakin Skywalker chained in an armored prison. He’d never wanted for necessities growing up, but every orphan wanted their parents. When he joined the Rebellion and heard the stories of his father and old Ben it had just made him more desperate for family.   
  
Learning the truth had been hard, and he’d never known if his insistence that his father could be redeemed had been guidance from the force, or just the wishful thinking of a child. It had worked out, and his father’s immediate death afterwards had let him avoid confronting Vader’s crimes. Coming back might have been a boon for Mara, but Luke would have preferred to dodge the issue indefinitely.   
  
“You’re right.”  
  
“I’m not trying to torture you.” There was a note of sympathy in her voice, he must have been more shaken than he realized if his shields were leaking. “But if I’m going to be doing this with you, risking both of my lives, you’ve got to be committed too. I’m not going to be left hanging when you go try to have a heart to heart with Vader.”  
  
That had been a gamble, one that he was still surprised he’d had the nerve for. This time the lengthy silence was his as he turned the problem over and over. “Alright.”  
  
“Great! Now how do we start?” Her sudden enthusiasm surprised him, but after a moment’s thought he realized it shouldn’t. Mara was a woman of action, and a clear goal would drive her like nothing else.  
  
“I’ve got a few ideas.”


	3. III

The buzzing of his commlink was enough to bring him out of the half sleep that a lifetime of war had beaten into his bones.  
  
“This is CC-Fifty Fifty-Two, what the situation?” He was out of his bunk grabbing for his armor before the person on the other end could speak. If they were waking him up it was serious.  
  
“Commander, we’re under attack!” It was the site’s administrator and there was panic in his voice. It was a civilian posting, but there was always a division of troopers there cycled off active duty.  
  
“Numbers?” The plates clicked onto his bodyglove as they sealed into position.  
  
“I don’t know- company force.” His helmet took over the call automatically as he pulled it on with a slight wiggle to make sure it was fully secured.  
  
“We’ll take it from here director.” A practiced gesture pulled his immediate subordinates into a conference call. “Mobilize for base defense, prepare for battalion strength opposition.”  
  
He barely waited for the acknowledgments before switching channels. They’d had their organic air and naval support stripped when they were rotated into their current deployment, but he could still call upon the local fleet elements.  
  
“Get me the OOD.” He slung his rifle over his shoulder as he started jogging to his command post. Typically of the navy there was a delay. He started talking again as soon as the warbling that indicated a secure connection finished. “We’re under attack, estimate company strength. Establish a secure perimeter and prepare to receive air support requests.”  
  
“We’re vectoring half of our CAP your way, they’ll be there in five. Additional reinforcements are ten minutes behind them.”  
  
“Excellent, coordinate with CL-Forty-Three Forty-Five.” He reached the heart of his defenses, other troopers were streaming in and manning their posts in the command bunker. His men were well trained, and even with the lax demands of their current mission they hadn’t lost a step. “Captain, what’s going on?”  
  
Tyto barely looked up from the holographic map of their facility. “Situation is unclear sir. All eastern towers were dropped with a simultaneous mortar barrage. The fast response team ceased communications nearly immediately afterward. We’re manning the hardpoints while we get set to push back.”  
  
He nodded, his men knew their business and until he had more information he didn’t have further orders. In five minutes they’d have fighters overhead and hundreds of soldiers in position.  
  
“What’s their objective, what’s special that’s kept on the east side?” The facility was multipurpose, it held researchers as well as massive databases and warehouses. It was possible that there other things stored in the sprawling base, but he hadn’t had need to know then. Things were different now. “Administrator?”  
  
“The majority of it is information on Separatist equipment, including schematics and documentation.” The bureaucrat was going white, clearly his mind had jumped to the same place as Bly’s.  
  
“Holdouts.” It was the only thing that made sense, a target worth risking an assault on an imperial base guarded by stormtroopers. The Confederation’s military had been badly fractured, fleets and armies were superficially similar but there were deep divisions concealed beneath their armor plates and behind their photoreceptors. If they could snatch the blueprints of upgraded Separatist war material they’d jump from a minor threat to one deserving a full sector response. “Issue pulse weapons, that data cannot leave this facility. CL-Eighty-Nine-Thirty-Six see to it.”  
  
“Yes sir.” One of his newer captains left the post at a full run, already barking orders.  
  
The hardest part of command followed, the waiting. He was tempted to give new orders, but his men knew their work. Something was bugging him though, something was wrong.  
  
“Why aren’t the mortars still firing?”  
  
“Sir?” The hubbub quieted.  
  
“They took out our towers and then just stopped?” He strode to the map, far too much of it had the gray that indicated there was no current data. “With artillery support this mission is just short of suicidal, without it?” How ragtag could this group be, if they couldn’t even get enough soldiers to keep dropping shells? Droids could easily handle that task. “What’s the ETA on air support?”  
  
“The  _Irresistible’s_  Ties are thirty seconds out. They’re requesting targets.”  
  
“Task them to reconnaissance, I want some intel.” His men were almost entirely into position, and the response company was mustered and ready to attack. “Does anyone have eyes on the opposition?”  
  
The continuing silence made his spine crawl. It was possible that someone had just shelled his base, killed his men, and withdrawn, but why? The longer they went without contact the less probable stealing data seemed. A small force should have been attacking ferociously to keep the initiative, not letting his men gather themselves. They must be doing something else, counting on the chaos.  
  
“Break up the response team by squads, have them search for infiltrators. Task the next company to reach full readiness as the new reserve.” That would explain the course of events. Someone had gotten ahold of some artillery, zeroed it in, and were now running around his base doing who knows what. “I want check ins every thirty seconds.”  
  
The administrator came to his side as the air filled with chatter as the teams reported a lot of nothing. “If they’re not holdouts there are other potential targets, ones that make more sense for thieves.”  
  
“Such as?”  
  
“We’ve a good deal of confiscated property, most of it never properly categorized. Art, bullion, jewelry, enough that it could make them rich for the rest of their lives.”  
  
“Thieves though?” It would be incredibly brazen, but some were greedy enough to risk the enmity of the Empire.  
  
“Every minute that goes by the attack seems less likely.”  
  
“Good point.” Getting in touch with the local governor took longer than he’d have liked, not everyone was awake in the middle of the night. “Get your police out. Establish a curfew, the roads are closed.”  
  
He didn’t give the man a chance to reply, one of the squads had just missed their check in.  
  
“Who’s closest to them? Get the response team moving!” That was unsettling, a gang of thieves shouldn’t have been able to silently take out a patrol.  
  
“Knife and Swift are headed towards Talon’s last known position.”  
  
“Get their datastreams up. I want to see everything they do.”  
  
The holographic map zoomed in to the maze of offices and buildings, the helmet cameras of the troopers filled in wherever they were looking, giving moving patches of photorealistic detail. The soldiers were silent over the radio as they advanced, constantly sweeping the corners and windows.  
  
“We’ve reached Talon squad’s last check in, we’re going to follow their planned route.” The sergeant’s voice was calm. “How far out is our support?”  
  
“Knife is six zero seconds at their current pace, coming from the north.”  
  
Bly let his subordinates handle it, turning to the officer in charge of the naval interface. “Get the Ties above them, and where’s the reinforcements they promised us?”  
  
“There’ll be a Carrack class configured for ground support, the  _Kaleida_ , here in two minutes, as well as a full squadron of Ties just before it.”  
  
He almost whistled. If they had been facing the initial company strength attack they’d thought that would have been generous. A minor capital ship could have chewed up ten times that number. “Have the Carrack position itself for the most coverage of the base, and set the fighters on attack runs parallel to the streets, I want them able to strafe anything that moves in fifteen seconds or less.”  
  
“Contact left!” Swift’s sergeant’s voice rang out in a shout, before going silent with a grim finality. The rest of the squad was gone too, all without a word.  
  
“Get their last recordings on the screen!” The ten images, all jerky transmissions showed an empty street, and then punishingly accurate blaster fire, slanted down. “Alert Knife, the enemy is on the roofs! Why didn’t the air support see them?”  
  
“We had eyes on that roof, it was empty!” The recordings proved the technician’s words. “It’s empty now!” It was like fighting ghosts, he had fifty men dead and they still hadn’t seen a single one of them.  
  
“Have Knife take defensive positions, I want a cordon six blocks on a side centered on Swift’s last position.”  
  
The administrator was frantically typing into his tablet, he moved behind him to see what he was doing.  
  
“I don’t have records on what’s in there, its seconded to the ISB.” The ISB had their tentacles in all sorts of things, that was less than helpful information.  
  
“What do you think it is?”  
  
“I’m pretty sure it’s a black site.” Behind his helmet Bly raised an eyebrow. Those were meant to be completely hidden, and a random bureaucrat shouldn’t know about one.  
  
“Why?”  
  
“They only ever have small transports in an out, and they requisition much more food than their nominal staff would suggest.”  
  
“A prison then.” His communications officer was already searching for the right channel, and Bly had to look up the correct authentication code. This was supposed to be an easy assignment. “Agent Lyn,” he paused, he shouldn’t know about the alleged prison, and the ISB was ironically already notorious for their thoroughness in plugging leaks. “There’s a raid underway, and they seem to be focusing on-“ he scanned the map, “blocks ten fifty six or fifty seven. Administrator Branasek will send you the inventories of the relevant blocks in the hopes that any allied subversives who might want similar material won’t be able to strike unaware garrisons.”  
  
There was no immediate reply, the agent had to be wondering why he was bothering to tell him something so anodyne. A hitch in the man’s breath let him know that the man realized what was going on. “Of course, Commander. Take the subversives alive if you can.”  
  
The order was unfortunate, but expected. He gave his men a sharp nod though, they’d bent the rules before but this wasn’t the time.  
  
“The Carrack is on station sir. They’re focusing on the cordoned area.”  
  
“Is the cordon complete?”  
  
“The last elements just reached their positions.”  
  
“Have them leapfrog forward by squads, I want every building searched.” The prison made the incursion seem more sensible. The ISB could have had anyone in there, and one with the resources and allies outside to send in a highly trained force wasn’t improbable. There must have been a leak somewhere in their organization, but as long as he caught them it wasn’t his problem. “Have Knife check the interior buildings and fort up, support any imperial personnel they find.”  
  
“CC-Fifty-Fifty-Two.” Bly turned, the voice was new, and it was an unfamiliar man in the rarely worn uniform of an ISB officer. “Belay that last order. No one is to go into any building in block ten fifty-seven.” The code cylinder he handed off nonchalantly proved his authority beyond any doubt. “In fact, it would be best if the block were entirely leveled. See to it.”  
  
“Get Knife out of there, have the Carrack open fire.”  
  
The gunners aboard the ship must have been eagerly waiting, it couldn’t have been more than a second after the order was given that he felt the faint rumbling of turbolaser impacts.  
  
“The Kaleida reports that the target has been destroyed, nothing is left standing.”  
  
The soldiers looked to the agent, he’d effectively taken command, but he was silent. Bly assumed that meant he was still in nominal control.  
  
“Shrink the cordon as I commanded.”  
  
The agent buffed his nails as Bly’s soldiers moved in, still regularly reporting. “Once you get to the block don’t allow your troops to enter it, we’ll be sending a team in to properly catalog the scene.”  
  
“You think the opposition is down?” It was a breach of etiquette for one of his captains to ask the question, but if he hadn’t Bly would. It seemed dangerously overconfident.  
  
“Good point, destroy all the blocks around it.” There was a strangled gasp from Branasek, who rushed to the agent.  
  
“Sir, you can’t! There’s people who sheltered in place in those buildings, to say nothing of what’s stored there and Knife!”  
  
“There will be nothing said about it. The fact that these subversives reached as far into this facility as they have indicates a lack of discipline that I can assure you will be met with punishments. Consider this the first of them.” He turned to Bly, dismissing the shrunken administrator entirely. “I gave an order, Commander.” The Kaleida was just as efficient for the second fire mission. Good soldiers followed orders.  
  
“I don’t want anything getting in or out of there, not even a bird.” He walked closer to the map, looking approvingly as the rubble and fires that now covered what had been a functioning part of the Empire. “My men will-“  
  
“Mortar fire!” The agent was forgotten as the map spun, before screams filled the channels. It was a barrage this time, targeting the eastern cordon.  
  
“Knock them out! Reinforce the side!” The report of a strafing run silencing the mortars went entirely unheard, the first sight of the attackers was enough for that.  
  
There were just two of them, a man and a woman, no three. The man had someone slung over his shoulder, while the woman only bore a heavy rifle that was spitting bolts with uncanny accuracy. It was the man’s weapon that drew attention though, a bar of blazing green light that was moving with incredible speed.  
  
“Jedi!”  
  
“All guns fire on them!”  
  
It seemed impossible that they could live, that the barrage of fire directed their way wouldn’t leave them shredded and smoking meat. That meant nothing though. Impossible was what Jedi did.  
  
The Kaleida shuddered and stopped firing as it began to sink. Bly could hear the repulsors roaring even in his armored command bunker, he couldn’t imagine what it sounded like outside.  
  
“Sir, the Kaleida has lost main engine power! Something struck them, they’re going to crash!” The agent was gaping in astonishment, and Bly was glad his helmet hid his own expression. He instead just watched as the Jedi and his companion charged forward, medical alerts popping up showing wounded and dead as they tore through his line.  
  
“Get everyone up, alert the fleet, shut down all planetary traffic.” He had only engaged in operations against Jedi three times, and he knew how difficult they were to kill. “The orbitals are to be closed. Send a priority message to Sector Command.” The ISB agent was making his own calls, speaking rapidly into his commlink.  
  
The Jedi had somehow gotten speeders. They left the base through the holes their initial mortars had made, casually punched through his perimeter and vanished into the city. He hadn’t expected anything else.  
  
“I want pictures of all three of them on every screen on this planet, I’m authorizing a bounty of one hundred thousand credits dead, twice that alive.” He looked to the agent, who had recovered somewhat. “Do we have a name for the escaped prisoner?”  
  
“Yes, but,” he shook his head, not understanding. “He’s a nobody. Some washed up Corellian admiral, Garm Bel Iblis.”


	4. IV

Garm didn’t know what was going on, but he was running with it. He’d been shuffled between prisons with identical walls and views for years. There had been other Corellians with him when he’d started, but by the time he reached- he didn’t even know the name of the planet he’d been on.  
  
“Lommel Six.” The man, the Jedi, piloting the shuttle didn’t look back as he answered. “Its main exports are smashball players and orthopedic surgeons, who are also smashball players.”  
  
His partner, who was stripping off an awe-inspiring amount of weapons from her armorweave jumpsuit, raised an eyebrow. “They’re going to need them all when Vader’s through with his interrogations.”  
  
It was a struggle to get back to where he’d been going before his thought had been plucked out of his head. The two had rescued him, long after he’d given up any hope of seeing the stars again, or even anyone he knew, and he couldn’t guess why. He’d commanded Corellia’s third fleet in the war, and he’d done well, but there were hundreds of admirals who’d been just as decorated and skilled. Ultimately the reason was less important than that they’d done it.  
  
“Thank you!” It was heartfelt, but the two of them merely looked awkward.  
  
“It wasn’t too much.” The pilot kept his eyes on the controls. “I’ve gone to much more trouble for less result on several occasions.”  
  
“You don’t have to downplay it that much Farmboy.” The woman seemed to finally be fully disarmed as she slumped down in a seat across from him, but he wasn’t willing to bet on it. “So that’s Luke, I’m Mara, and we’ve got some questions Garm.”  
  
“We can wait until we reach orbit, by then we’ll know if your codes work.”  
  
“I’d prefer not to waste our time.”  
  
“And you can tell me how you told me so with your customary grace and tact once we clear the planet without trouble.”  
  
“Are you saying that I’m ever anything less than the soul of politeness?”  
  
“Of course not, that would be stupid.” The pilot hadn’t looked back at all, and now that Garm was watching he could see that he was handling two of the three stations at once, the shuttle they were in wasn’t meant for only two crew members. There wasn’t any sign of strain in his motions though, which indicated either ignorance, arrogance, or a somewhat terrifying level of proficiency. “Now strap in, if things are going to get exciting it will be now.”  
  
“Do you need help with the navigation?” Mara hadn’t joined him in following instructions and strapping in, instead leaning over the back of Luke’s chair. “These old shuttles-“  
  
“I’ve got it, but sit down.”  
  
She moved sinuously to the copilot’s chair, her remaining armor not weighing her down at all. “You’re transmitting the codes?”  
  
“You do know I’m generally thought of as a decent pilot and somewhat competent, right?”  
  
“Yes, but I know the real you.”  
  
Garm wasn’t quite sure what to make of the banter, the Jedi he’d met during and before the war had generally been stoic. He’d never doubted they cared, but they had avoided much levity. Granted it was mostly during the war, when thousands were dying every hour or minute, but he’d expected a bit more solemnity.  
  
The buffeting of the atmosphere ceased as they rose into space. Lommel Six didn’t seem to have much orbital infrastructure, there was usually something visible as opposed to just other planets, stars, and the inky blackness of deep space.  
  
“The  _Irresistible_  is about to rise, assuming they haven’t made another unannounced change in altitude.” There was nothing on the sensors that he could see to show that, but he followed the Jedi’s vague wave to look out the porthole.  
  
A spear head was just piercing the haze of the horizon. Without any sense of distance he couldn’t grasp the scale, but it followed the same general plan of an Victory class. It lacked the red of the Republic Navy, instead the ship was bone white.  
  
“Right on schedule, we’ll know if your codes work in just a second.”  
  
“They’ll work.”  
  
“I’ll just fly casual then.”  
  
Mara’s head turned to him. “Is that supposed to mean something? More of your Rogue in jokes?”  
  
“Something like that.”  
  
There was no challenge from the  _Irresistible_ , and Luke kept them on course until he turned to his jump vector. The stars stretched, and Garm felt the familiar lurch into hyperspace once again. It hadn’t really sunk in until then, but he was free.  
  
Mara immediately unbuckled, returning to the seat she’d initially claimed. The Jedi punched a few commands into the flight computer, then came back to join them.  
  
“You can say it you know.”  
  
She shook her head. “Your chastised expression takes all the fun out of it. Next time.”  
  
“Alright then.” The pilot rubbed his face on his sleeve, and what Garm had taken for a dark tan turned into a mess of dust and sweat. “If you can hold yourself back for just a minute I’m going to hit the fresher, even my right hand feels grimy.”  
  
He vanished towards the stern, leaving him with only the woman. There was a moment of silence, before he decided that a few years of prison was enough time without taking the initiative. “You said you had questions?”  
  
“One or two, sure.”  
  
“Well,” he glanced around the empty shuttle, “I’m not really doing much now.”  
  
“Point taken.” She raised a hand and a datapad shot into it, to be briefly met with an incandescent smile. The visible joy was gone nearly instantly as she switched it on and flipped through several files. “Right, so before we start here’s a bit of background. Luke and I have been out of touch with the galaxy for a while, and only recently returned. It’s a bit different than how we remembered, and we’d like to do something about it. Any interest?”  
  
Garm didn’t know what to think, what the woman said was laughable. What could two people, even two Jedi, do against the might of the Empire?  
  
“What are you proposing?” He didn’t recognize the voice that spoke for an instant, but something about it made Mara grin.  
  
“In a word? Rebellion.”  
  
The arrogance inherent in the reply almost stunned him.  
  
“The Emperor and Vader must be destroyed.” Luke had returned, looking far more put together. “Their cruelty knows no bounds, and even those who serve the Empire with the best of intentions will eventually be corrupted.” The words were those of an ideologue, a dreamer, but the way the Jedi said them made them seem like holy writ. “Mara and I, and others like us, will be able to contend with the Sith. However, to bring down the entire edifice will take more.”  
  
“More? Just what do you have now?” He could recognize a sales pitch.  
  
Mara had a sardonic grin. “Think of it as getting in on the ground floor.”  
  
“Just you two?”  
  
Luke’s smile looked more earnest. “Don’t forget the Force, and a near suicidal willingness to go off on damn-fool idealistic crusades.”  
  
“Well that changes things.” Garm looked between the two Jedi, already knowing what his answer would be. “I’m in. But first, why me?”  
  
The two shared a glance before Luke answered. “Call it a hunch that you’ll be pretty good at running a nearly unsupported war for years with limited resources.”  
  
Garm had the feeling he was missing a joke. “That’s an awfully specific hunch.”  
  
“That’s the Force for you.”

* * *

  
  
They dropped out of hyperspace still in deep space. What looked like a modified yacht hung before them, although he couldn’t quite pick out the underlying class. Mara had taken the co-pilot’s seat once again and was entering in what seemed like an excessively long recognition code. At last the chime indicating an automatic docking system rang and the shuttle spun.  
  
It was always a little disorienting to see other ships rotate as gravity stayed constant, but Garm had spent most of his adult life aboard ships. Prior to his incarceration he might have spent more than half his whole life, but four years on solid ground would surely hurt his ratio.  
  
He followed Luke and Mara, both carrying hefty duffle bags through the umbilical and towards the cockpit of the yacht. “So you’ve recruited an admiral, but so far your fleet only has two ships?”  
  
The two had switched roles with the new ship, something Mara was visibly pleased about. “Just one actually.” There was a muffled thud, and then a wave of plasma washed over the shields. “We’ve actually got a few leads on a fleet for you.”  
  
“I’m not sure that sentence has ever been said before.” Mara nodded, but she didn’t reply as she continued to check over her ship. Luke entered the cockpit, he’d shed the bags somewhere, gave a quick scan, then beckoned Garm to come with him.  
  
“So, our rescue of you was pretty impromptu, but we’ve got the necessities.” Luke had led him to a cabin, it wasn’t much but compared to a cell it looked like heaven. “I’ll apologize in advance for the clothes, the last guy who stayed here thought he had taste.”  
  
“I’m sure I’ll manage,” Garm waved desultorily at his tatter prison jumpsuit. “It can hardly be worse than this.”  
  
“You say that.” Luke turned, seemingly satisfied to let him settle in, but Garm wasn’t quite ready to call it a day and followed him.  
  
The Jedi didn’t object to him following as he typed a password into the door of another cabin. The door hissed open to a dark room, with a tall figure, a droid, watching a little girl sleep. He could see Mara’s shade of red on the pillow before Luke closed the door again.  
  
“Is she-“  
  
Luke cut him off. “The Empire has taken a lot from us.”  
  
The man clearly didn’t want to share more as he headed back towards the front of the ship, not missing a step as they slid into hyperspace much more smoothly than the shuttle had.  
  
“So, Mara said something about a fleet?”  
  
He nodded, turning into a lounge which was dominated by a cutting edge console. Luke turned it on and flipped through a sea of locked files before selecting one which he opened with another bizarrely long password.  
  
“Before we came for you we stopped at the ISB headquarters and let ourselves into their systems.” From Luke’s tone he could have been talking about an afternoon stroll. “We couldn’t take all their data, not even a thousandth of a percentage, but we did get a few things. Our no questions asked clearance code was one of them.” Luke manipulated the console and a hologram of hundreds of ships sprang into the air. “Another was the locations of the mothballed Separatist fleets.”  
  
Garm found himself standing, peering at the image. There were dreadnoughts, Lucrehulks, cruisers, logistic vessels, and landing craft. He forced himself to tamp down on his enthusiasm. “They must be guarded.”  
  
“Also shut down and nominally disabled, we can hardly just sweep in and snatch them you’re correct.” Luke didn’t seem discouraged though, and he waited for the Jedi to continue. “However, their main defense is obscurity, and we’ve already gotten past that. With a little ingenuity I feel that three capable people,” Mara had appeared silently, “can find a way to get past the comparatively small problem of a few frigates with skeleton crews.”  
  
Garm nodded, his mind already racing. The problem reminded him of the sort he’d seen at the Academy, the operations that young ensigns dreamed of leading. He wasn’t so old that he didn’t still want a taste of glory.  
  
“How did you take out that cruiser when we escaped? The Force?” If Luke could knock out ships at will- no the Jedi was shaking his head, abashed.  
  
“The force is capable of many things, but that was the result of a flaw in the shields. Carracks have an oscillating soft spot when they’re in atmosphere, once you know it’s there the trick is easy.”  
  
“If getting your missile to pass through the gap at the right time with no external clues is easy, then sure.” Mara sounded almost as if she were bragging. “Don’t get full of yourself Farmboy.”  
  
Luke rolled his eyes. “How could I ever?”


	5. V

The General, no Admiral, had joined them in brainstorming for almost an hour, but the excitement and the lateness of the day eventually sent him to his cabin. Luke waited until he could sense the older man was asleep before he turned to Mara who was still taking down notes.  
  
“We can’t tell him.”  
  
“I’m glad you agree with me.”  
  
“I seem to recall you saying that we should wait and see.”  
  
“I did, we did, and I’m glad you agree with my assessment.” She floated the datapad back to its charging cradle. He’d suggested that she work on her more external force usage and she’d taken it to heart, not bothering to stand up to get anything. He was sure he’d be seeing ration packs and water bottles soaring up from the galley within the week. “Right now, he thinks that we were captured by the Empire and somehow escaped with our daughter. I don’t see any advantage in disabusing him of the idea.”  
  
“How are we going to explain our knowledge of the future?”  
  
“What knowledge?” Mara stood and started to pull apart her braid. “Everything’s changed, you might not have learned anything about history growing up on your dustball, but some things hundreds of years ago never happened.”  
  
“How sure are we that they ever happened in the first place? Palpatine-“  
  
“Karrde had databases that went back before all the censorship started. Artifacts too. This galaxy isn’t the same as ours.”  
  
Luke wanted to keep arguing, but he could hear the truth in Mara’s words. “Then why is so much the same? You, my father-“  
  
“Who the kriff knows?” Mara walked to the door, and Luke followed. “Maybe the force, maybe I’m in a coma, all we can do is play the hand we’re dealt. Now are you going to face facts?”  
  
“I’ve always thought that you dreamed about me.”  
  
Mara snorted. “You think this is  _my_  dream?”  
  


* * *

  
“Lucrehulk’s will need at least two hundred standardized work periods to get even marginally operation, to say nothing of six hours for reactor ignition. They also vent radiation and waste gas in somewhat epic quantities, so there’s no way to do it stealthily.”  
  
Whatever the changes to the galaxy a wide variety of software packages were the same, and Ghent’s exploits remained unpatched. Getting into years old intelligence assessments of Separatist battleships had been children’s play. It had also been demoralizing.  
  
“The Navy isn’t full of idiots either, they’ll have recognized the danger of the mothballed ships falling into the wrong hands.” Mara was as glum as him, their hopes for waltzing in and out with a fleet now looked impossibly optimistic.  
  
“Remote self-destructs, the removal of all the useful droids, more tracking devices than we can easily imagine.” Garm was upbeat despite the setback, the euphoria of escaping an empty cell still carrying him after a week. “Hijacking the fleet might not be the easiest way to get one.”  
  
“Then what do you suggest?” Luke was flexing his right hand, something in the prosthetic was slightly off and he wasn’t looking forward to messing with it without Artoo. “Right now the Empire is riding high, most people still haven’t felt its impact nor its cruelty. Without a suitably dramatic gesture we’ll have to spend years building support and awareness.”  
  
“I think that’s going to be needed no matter what we do.” The admiral leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. “None of us have ever run a revolution before, but I doubt they’re driven solely by the actions of commandos.”  
  
“That’s what we effectively are though. Our contacts,” Mara gestured to Luke, “were killed in the war along with our comrades. We’ve got two Jedi, an Admiral, a tricked-out ship and- a girl who should be in bed!”  
  
Luke barely caught the flash of red as the younger Mara vanished back towards her room. Luckily she’d finally given up on trying to contact the Emperor. They’d been teaching her to listen for lies and were attempting to deindoctrinate her through their absolute belief in his evil. Luke wasn’t sure it was working, he wasn’t a child psychologist, but at least he was able to stop constantly blocking her attempts. It was a mixed bag though, with her newfound energy she was utterly beyond the abilities of the nursery droid.  
  
Mara stood to follow her, leaving the two men to pour over the documents.  
  
“If we could just get the ships somewhere else, deep space, far from the holonet repeaters, we’d have all the time in the world to get them running and secured.” Luke didn’t interrupt as the admiral went over their central problem. “We’ve been thinking that the ships have to move themselves, but what if they didn’t?”  
  
“Then we’d still have to get past the patrol ships before they can hammer the big red button blowing up everything we hope to steal. More likely, they wait until we get a tug attached and then blow it up to make sure they get us.”  
  
“The Imperial ships have to be destroyed nearly instantly, or at least prevented from acting.”  
  
“Easier said than done.” Luke’s hand was really acting up now, his pinky was quivering and wasn’t sending the proprioceptive data which was making him vaguely uncomfortable. He pulled off his glove and flipped open the access panel, ignoring Garm’s sudden pallor. “Even then we’d only have until the next check in and however long it took for reinforcements to arrive to get our ships a suitable distance away.”  
  
“Which also ignores the near certainty that the ships have bombs rigged to go off whenever they detect a hyperspace transition.” Mara swept back into the room. “We don’t have the resources to steal a fleet. Not yet.”  
  
“The fleet was supposed to be our resources, a way to prime the pump.”  
  
“And it would be great, if we could do it. We can’t.”  
  
Luke found himself nodding. “We need people, trustworthy people, and credits. Lots of both.”  
  
“Without the ships we’ll have a hard time introducing ourselves.” Garm was leaning forwards now. “Even though I think there’s more needed than drama, I won’t deny that we need some.”  
  
“I think Luke and I can create enough of that. Our actions will be your bona fides.”   
  
“Who will I go to?” The admiral was willing to roll with it. “You yourself said that your contacts were dead or gone.”  
  
Mara moved forwards to the console and pulled up three dossiers. “I don’t know, but the Ubiqtorate has some suggestions.”  
  
Two of them Luke immediately recognized, Mon Mothma, and Bail Organa. Mon looked younger, but Bail had only ever been a picture to him and he didn’t see much difference. The third was an orange Twi’lek.  
  
“Cham Syndulla?” Garm joined him in scanning the summary. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of him. He doesn’t have anywhere near the profile of the other two.”  
  
“However he is acting now.” Mara scrolled through the document, showing that she’d done more than skim it. She’d been planning this. “He’s got soldiers, weapons, and a clear cause. The ISB is looking closely at the Senators, but they’re just waiting for a clear shot at Syndulla.”  
  
Luke didn’t know much about Ryloth past the spice and strippers that everyone was aware of, but what he could see didn’t conflict with what he’d previously learned. The new galaxy didn’t seem to have major surprises, in this case at least.  
  
“I’d still prefer Mothma or Organa.” Luke resisted the urge to look at Mara. Garm’s objection was reasonable, but he had no desire to bring closer scrutiny on Organa and by extension Leia.  
  
“Their higher profile nature is exactly why we shouldn’t go to them first.” Mara dropped into her seat heavily, dealing with herself was always exhausting. “If we go to Organa and Mothma, if they’re actually involved and not just a trap, if we go to them first they’ll be implicitly in control. Instead by us helping Syndulla and representing you as the brains behind our brawn-“  
  
“They’ll see me as an equal when I reach out. I understand, although I’m not certain I agree.” He started to take notes on his datapad nonetheless. “So we hang around near Ryloth, wait for an opportune moment, and you go in sabers flashing?”  
  
Luke shook his head. “It’s probably best to avoid the public usage of things that identify us as Jedi. That will draw enough attention that I doubt he’d thank us.”  
  
“The subtler you are, the longer it will take.”  
  
“Don’t worry about that, subtly is entirely beyond Luke.”  
  
His raised eyebrow had no effect on her. “Funny. Any ideas on what we can do when we’re not lurking around ready to intervene?”  
  
“I do as a matter of fact, we need money. How do you feel about more gambling?”  
  
“How good a gambler do you think I am?” While he was pretty talented there was no way he could win real money at sabacc. A few thousand credits was an incredible day for him, and one he’d likely not be able to repeat without drawing suspicion.  
  
“I thought you played with Han and Lando?” There was a bit of bizarrely uncharacteristic uncertainty in her voice.  
  
“They’re on an entirely different level. If Han was at all sensible,” Luke stopped to consider it, “well I’d probably be dead and he’d actually own a planet somewhere and live on it, or be responsible for fundamental upgrades in hyperdynamics. He was wasted as a smuggler, even though it worked out.”  
  
Garm was watching the conversation like a spectator at a particularly quick smashball match.  
  
“I guess it’s good that my plan wasn’t for you to win then.”  
  
“Oh?”  
  
“Clearly I anticipated your difficulties, because my plan is only to enter a tournament, and then rob the hosting casino of the buy ins.”  
  
“Why would it even matter how good a gambler Luke was then?” The admiral managed to interject while Luke was trying to adjust to the sudden swing. “Couldn’t we just rob them anyway?”  
  
Mara shook her head. “We need ludicrous amounts of money, the sort that royalty throws around. To get into anywhere with that much wealth we’ll need to be invited.”  
  
“We’re pretty capable individuals.”  
  
“No, an inside job will be the best way. Besides,” Mara’s grin turned sinister, “there’s a lot of tournaments with entry to the right tier as a prize, even a new one on this little planet called Bespin.”  
  
“I’d rather take my chances with the self-destructs.”


	6. VI

Skywalker was staggering and Mara wasn’t quite sure how much of it was an act. They’d arrived on the  _Placida_ , a new luxury cruiser, and for the low price of a few thousand credits they’d bought entry into its inaugural sabacc tournament.  
  
The players were better than the farmers he’d beaten on Tor Imeld, but apparently the lessons from Solo and Calrissian were still sufficient. He’d done well until he reached the final table where some of the players had grown suspicious of his improbable luck. There hadn’t been an accusation of cheating, but Skywalker had decided the best way to convince them otherwise was to start hammering back drinks. By the time he won the final pot Mara thought he had more Whyren’s in him than blood.  
  
In any case it had worked, and they were now the proud owners of one complimentary seat at their choice of several more famous tournaments. She had hoped to be able to discuss which one they should choose, Hesperidium was obviously out given its location, but she doubted that Skywalker was going to be up for any coherent conversation.  
  
“About half,” he slurred out. They’d just reached the turbolift and she’d maneuvered him to lean against the wall while she waited for the car to come.  
  
“What?” He really did look bad. His normal tan was gone and combined with his dark dyed hair he had an almost sickly pallor.  
  
“How drunk I am acting.” The lift’s doors slid open and she had to catch him before he fell in. “Halfish” She glared at the visibly amused girls who flooded out past them onto the casino’s main floor before she viciously punched the door closed button.  
  
“That’s way too much.” It took her longer than she would have liked to tamp down her irritation and to remember their deck. When she went to type it in Skywalker blocked her.  
  
“We got upgraded, we’re in the diamond level now.” She batted his hand out of the way, there wasn’t a diamond level, and entered their floor. When she swiped her access key an annoying little jingle played and a breathy female voice let her know that their room had indeed been changed. She hit the accept button and scowled at him, daring Skywalker to say something. Her glower was wasted, Luke was looking up at the ceiling, not at her.  
  
“It’s mirrored.” Mara glanced up, traced his line of vision and resisted the urge to shove him. She had no desire to scrape him off the floor.  
  
Luckily for him their new accommodations apparently came with perks. The turbolift sped to their deck uninterrupted, and the doors slid open to reveal what some Mid-Rim designer apparently thought was the height of luxury. Mara didn’t think she was especially snobbish, she’d worked for a smuggler with all that entailed, but anyone who imagined that inlaying all the walls with gemstones was classy clearly required remedial education. Luke’s mouth snapped shut, and she could tell that he’d been about to say something complimentary regarding the decoration.  
  
A line of the gems lit up the same color as her access key and she dragged her increasingly compliant passenger along to their room. The door was just as tacky as she’d expected, it was a solid block of opal that she impatiently pushed forward before tugging Skywalker into their suite. She closed the door, she wanted to slam it but she’d have had to draw on the force to push it hard enough for it to be noticed, and resisted the urge to curse.  
  
Mara had been draped on Luke’s shoulder for hours, watching him bluff and cheat as the other players leered at her. She’d been looking forward to getting back to their room where she could relax and decompress, but now she had to do another full security check of their newly expansive chambers while he sobered up. Typical.  
  
She heard her commlink chime, the pattern denoting it was from the Fire, and she did curse. Bel Iblis was checking in ahead of schedule, and that meant it was important. She left Luke on the couch in the antechamber and opened her cosmetics case. Inside of it was a remarkably complete set, but beneath the nail polishes and mascaras a noise generator was concealed. She hadn’t wanted to use it, certainly if questioned she had excuses prepared for its presence, people liked to believe the prurient, but it was inherently suspicious.  
  
The irritating hum filled the air as she plugged in a set of headphones and answered the call, holding one hand in front of her mouth to block lip readers.  
  
“Hey, we just got comped into a brand-new room that I haven’t even seen all of yet!” Hopefully he’d realize the implication.  
  
“Wonderful, but things are developing here. You might have to cut your vacation short.” She could see Skywalker passed out face down in the other room with one arm hanging off the sofa.  
  
“That’s the best news I’ve ever gotten.”  
  


* * *

  
“Command, we’re seeing heavy resistance!” Pok glanced around the corner and yanked his head back, he could feel the heat of the bolts that just barely missed his lekku.  
  
“We need the Stormtroopers occupied! Hold your position!” Pok knew the plan, he didn’t know the goal, but he knew his role. It was obvious they were a distraction for something, there was no other reason to attack Lessu’s bureaucratic district. It was an old government complex, and it had organically grown over the centuries. The Empire had moved in, and what had once been a tourist attraction for the varied and ornate architecture became a restricted area. There were still maps though, and the unplanned expansion had left it a warren where a small force could engage one many times it’s larger and still slip away in the confusion.  
  
That had been the idea at least, but the Stormtroopers had been unusually quick to deploy and Pok’s group hadn’t been able to establish the hardpoints they’d planned. Instead they were engaged in running battles with the Imperial troops, and that was entirely different from ambushing them. He’d already taken far heavier casualties than expected, and they needed to last at least another thirty minutes before disengaging. It wouldn’t happen.  
  
“We can’t stay for the duration! You’ve got to hurry up with whatever you’re doing!”  
  
“Observe communications protocol!” Isval sounded stressed over the commlink. “And if you retreat we’re kriffed!”  
  
His men looked to him, the former slave’s voice had been loud enough that they could hear it over the sounds of battle.  
  
“We’ve got our orders then.” He wished it didn’t sound like a death sentence, but they’d known what they were getting into when they joined. “Tymo, take your squad and head north, that section’s convoluted enough that they can’t have a solid perimeter. Start making noise when you’re out, and that will thin the guards enough that we can break out too.” He didn’t expect it to work, but at least he’d be saving some of them. “The rest of you, we’re headed to the center, we’ll assess our egress point when it’s time.”  
  
Tymo nodded, and with a gesture broke across the street to the north. Blaster bolts chased them, but they made it to the next corner and out of sight without losing anyone. Pok looked to his remainder, about thirty sweaty and nervous Twi’leks. He wanted to say he wouldn’t trade them for anything, but it would be nice to have trained soldiers instead of amateur revolutionaries.  
  
“We’re going to the Selcce Building, they’ll have to chase us.” He would have preferred one of the more baroque structures, but the hard-stone walls of the unadorned reserve bank would protect them from all but the heaviest weapons. It was also rumored to have vast amounts of credits stored in it, which while probably untrue could be an advantage. If they escaped that is.  
  
The entry into the building they were hiding next to, Interplanetary Communications, was fortified, but its transparisteel windows were actually glass. They shattered easily as his men fanned out into the lobby. The overweight security guard didn’t get a chance to shoot, falling to a single blaster bolt that left his head a gory ruin. The lights were off and the workers were barricaded in their offices, the whole facility was locked down. Pok would have liked to set traps for the Stormtroopers chasing them, but they had no time. Running through the corridors his team was quiet, all had realized their likely fate. He trusted Cham and Isval, he was sure that their lives were being spent wisely, but they were still being spent.  
  
He gestured for his team to slow as they reached the far side of the building, they would be exiting into a courtyard that looked clear but for the topiary. He waved two men forward to check it out, they were in a hurry but they couldn’t afford an ambush. They moved forward in sudden surges, advancing to cover in stages. It couldn’t have been more than twenty seconds but it felt like decades before they reached the end of the courtyard and scanned the street. One signaled back an all clear, Pok didn’t sigh in relief but he wanted to as his group ran forward into the open air.  
  
Then the world exploded. For a second all was noise and confusion, blaster bolts hammering into the ground around them.  
  
“Back! Back inside!” He roared the command as he sprinted for the door. The heavy repeaters had ignited the hedges and the smoke was the only cover as they frantically ran. Somehow, they didn’t all die as they made it back, but the guns didn’t stop. The shots punching through the brick and plaster sent burning chunks of shrapnel through the lobby, and Pok’s team kept running.  
  
He tried to call the building’s floor plan to mind, but his memory was fuzzy, he was probably concussed. He was sure there was a central atrium at the core, and if they wanted to hold out they needed to command it. There were certainly stormtroopers inside already, and they would be thinking the same thing he was.  
  
“Set proximity mines at every other intersection!” That would slow their pursuers, even when they noticed the pattern they’d still have to deal with the bombs. If only he’d- no he needed to focus on the future. He grabbed a map off the wall, the bureaucrats obviously hadn’t remembered to remove them, and led his team towards the building’s center.  
  
They made it just in time, he got his men into position overlooking the atrium when the first stormtroopers appeared below them. It was their turn for an ambush, from above and from cover they brutalized the Imperial troops. The lead squad was dead in less than twenty seconds, but he knew that they’d have alerted the rest. This was it then.  
  
He pulled his commlink for what would be the last time. “Command, we’re surrounded. We’ll do what we can.” He was the only one with the frequency to their leaders, and protocol was that he was to destroy it as soon as his position was untenable. His men were watching him though, he couldn’t do it, couldn’t wreck the last of their hope. He’d wait until they stopped watching.  
  
“Understood. Good luck.” Isval had gotten the message.  
  
All of them were silent as they aimed at the entry points, he’d heard at least one of the proximity mines detonating which meant they were well and truly surrounded. He hoped that Tymo and his squad had made it out.  
  
The attack came quietly, canisters that jingled as they landed in the center of the open space. He was startled for a second before they went off and everything went white and numb. By the time he was remotely coherent there were stormtroopers inside and firing, causing damage even with their poor positioning. His men were shooting back, but the flashbangs had worked, the Imperials were past the choke point and were at the base of the stairs forcing his men to split their fire. There’d be more coming on the other levels, further reducing their advantages, and he looked at the commlink still in his hand. It was time.  
  
The skylight above the atrium shattered, he looked up to see an imperial gunship dropping through the shards. Its repulsors roared as it flared just above the floor and its heavy cannons were already moving. They opened fire and Pok braced for the deaths of his men, before he realized that they were hitting the stormtroopers. Impossibly agile the LAAT spun in the confined space, walking its bolts around the entire ground floor, leaving nothing but rubbles and fire beneath them.  
  
The troop doors hissed open as the pilot managed to put it next to the second level just in front of them. A human woman was standing in the opening, heavily armed and armored.  
  
“What are you waiting for? Get in now!” Pok didn’t think, just jumping on board. His team sprinted after him, the last group carrying an obviously dead twi’lek, but he didn’t say anything. The woman shoved him, and he looked at her. “Is that all!”  
  
He nodded, they were depressingly few, but the woman just shouted something to the pilot. The doors closed as they shot upward. They juked hard as they exited the building throwing everyone but the woman to the deck as she ran to the cockpit and the empty co-pilot’s chair.  
  
“Welcome to Rebel Air, and if anyone knows how to shoot get on the guns!” The pilot’s shout was followed by another rapid twist, but Pok had a strong enough stomach that he was able to move towards one of the lateral turrets.  
  
Once he was there he almost wished he hadn’t made it, they were flying through the streets of Lessu only meters off the ground. Buildings and speeders blazed past them as the pilot danced through the air, he pulled on the head phones just to distract himself from their surely imminent death.  
  
“Port side guns, target high in three, two, one, mark!” Pok slewed his gun up on reflex, as if by magic a Tie appeared in his gunsight just as the pilot said. His gun spat fire, and the fighter disintegrated.  
  
“Who’s in command here?” It was the woman’s voice this time, “we need someplace safe to set down and scatter or this rescue is going to be a real short trip!”  
  
No! The mission! Pok hit the transmit key and shouted. “We can’t stop yet, we need the troopers busy!”  
  
“Fine.” The pilot’s voice was dry.  
  
A massive hand pressed down on Pok’s chest, his lekku screamed as the gunship flung itself skyward and spun. He just barely saw two missiles streak into the distance before they accelerated straight down.  
  
“They’ll be dealing with their barracks burning, but the Navy is coming in hot, and we’re going to be out of the sky one way or another damn quick.” The pilot could have been discussing the weather.  
  
“Get to the western edge of the city, and set down by the Reena towers.”  
  
“We’re not exactly locals.” It was the woman this time. “Designate it.”  
  
Pok looked at the controls in front of him. Past the triggers he had no idea how to work the panel. “I’ll come forward, I’ll show you where-“  
  
“No need, I’ve got it.”  
  
Their flight was just as chaotic, but he noticed a pattern as they began to work towards the destination. It felt like a decade as he shot at more perfectly lined up fighters, but it could only have been mere minutes before they stopped just above the ground and the doors hissed open.  
  
“Everybody off! This is the end of the line!” His men jumped out and sprinted into the towers, they were dangerous and controlled by the spice cartels, but the Free Ryloth movement was as vicious as any gang. The smugglers couldn’t be trusted, but risking their territory was infinitely better than being surrounded by stormtroopers.  
  
He followed his team, and the pilot and woman followed him, the LAAT launching itself on some bizarre unpiloted course. They ran after his team, rushing through the rundown housing block, taking several turns before he ducked through a door and dove.  
  
His men had their blasters ready and leveled at the two newcomers. The woman had her blaster rifle on him, she must have already been aiming at him to be that quick, but the man pushed its barrel down, his expression was almost amused.  
  
“Well you’ve got us.” He hadn’t bothered to reach for his carbine, instead looking far more relaxed than a man with twenty blasters on him had any right to. “I suppose it would be too much for us to ask you to take us to your leader? I’ve got a message for Syndulla from the admiral.”


	7. VII

VII  
  
Luke wasn’t particularly impressed with the Free Ryloth movement at the moment. Sure, they’d given him a perfunctory pat down and taken his carbine and commlink, but anyone who missed a lightsaber was just asking for trouble. He had to admit the bag over his head was a nice sign of competence. The cloth was thick and opaque, sometimes captors didn’t realize that fabrics could be translucent, but they’d done their homework in this respect.  
  
Not that it mattered. Even if they’d found all his weapons and he didn’t have Mara who he could feel seething next to him, he had the Force. It was telling him to wait, and he did, leaning back as far as his cuffed hands would let him.  
  
They’d been on the move on and off for at least four hours and changed vehicles three times. He could sense the direction of Lessu’s center, cities were just as vibrant in the force as any jungle, and they’d been circling it. Presumably they were trying to see if he or Mara were carrying some sort of esoteric tracker that would lead the imperials to their true base. It was a more convoluted plan than he’d ascribe to the Empire, if nothing else the troops he’d slaughtered and the barracks he’d collapsed would have made it more expensive than necessary. They’d had the rebels dead to rights, and one of them would surely have broken under torture.  
  
Paranoia was a healthy trait in their profession though, so he did his best to project calm to Mara. She had certainly already realized what the Twi’leks were up to, but she was a woman of action. He was only a little better at waiting, so he had to be patient enough for the both of them.  
  
At last, only fifteen minutes later, hands grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him to his feet before giving him a hard shove. He kept his balance, it wouldn’t do to show weakness now, and released his nervousness into the force.  
  
He kept his eyes shut as the bag was torn from his head, opening his eyes deliberately after taking a deep breath. In front of him were three Twi’leks, all armed and looking martial. In the center was Cham Syndulla.  
  
Luke nodded to him politely, then looked to his right and gave Mara a once over. Her annoyance was bleeding into the force, but she had a better sabacc face than he did. Satisfied that she wouldn’t immediately tear out everyone’s throats with her teeth he turned back to the orange Twi’lek and waited.  
  
He could feel their uneasiness as the silence stretched on. Most people wanted to talk, to fill the air, and being able to gauge their tension was a way to help set the tone. At last, after the revolutionary looked to his lieutenants and exchanged some signal, Syndulla spoke.  
  
“You said you had a message for me.” His voice didn’t sound at all like what Luke was expecting. Usually leaders of new groups were serious, ever word measured and carefully meted out. Syndulla just sounded entertained. “Yet, I don’t believe I’m on speaking terms with any Admirals.”  
  
“Consider this an introduction then.”  
  
Syndulla didn’t look impressed. “Perhaps a letter would have worked better. Before you made your grand entrance fifteen of my soldiers died.”  
  
“The Admiral’s spies are focused on the Empire, we only knew of your operation when they did.” Luke kept his tone level as he lied to the man. They certainly could have hacked into the Imperial communications net to get real time updates on the situation, they’d done it on Lommel Six, but they only had so many exploits. At some point they’d be patched or the computer systems would diverge and Ghent’s toolkit would be useless. Waiting near a hanger to steal transportation as needed was much more sustainable. “We came as soon as we could.”  
  
He grunted noncommittally in response. Again, he looked to his subordinates, and whatever he saw there seemed positive. “Well you saved some, and I am not ungrateful. I will hear your message.”  
  
They’d agreed beforehand that Mara would handle the negotiations. “Our leader has been impressed by your efforts, and he’s working to establish links with others who oppose the empire.” That was roughly the expected initial offer, he had confidence in her to properly gauge the situation. Syndulla was an ideologue, and the last time visitors had offered to help his rebellion it hadn’t ended well. “There isn’t trust between us, not yet, but in time it will come.”  
  
Cham looked to his right, and the blue twi’lek stepped forward. “What, precisely, does he intend these links to entail?”  
  
“If you ask for it you’ll get information, the Admiral has been working to establish sources for some time and he has a remarkable ability to acquire actionable intel.” Mara sounded assured, and Luke outwardly mirrored her. He had his doubts that they’d be able to dig up enough information by themselves, especially since Coruscant would be closed to them. Developing sources and methods took time and expertise. As talented as Mara was, she was only one woman. And a toddler.  
  
“Your intelligence was limited in this engagement, generally we need slightly more.”  
  
“If you ask for something, we will strive to find it, and with more time we can do better.”  
  
“You intend for these links to be strictly intelligence?” Cham spoke again, his thoughts impossible to discern from his expression. He was curious though.  
  
“It seems the best way to build confidence, however,” Mara glanced to Luke, “the Admiral recruits talented individuals. If you need more direct assistance he can provide it.”  
  
Syndulla looked dubious. “We don’t have much need for pilots, as impressive a display as that was. As for others, we’ve been fighting for years. I doubt your Admiral can provide anything that we don’t already have.”  
  
That was as close to a straight line as Luke was likely to get. In a single motion he ripped his cuffs apart, bits of torn metal jangling against the ground. The Twi’leks didn’t panic, but their guns were raised and he could feel the tension.  
  
Mara was unfazed, just raising an eyebrow as her own picked cuffs fell away less theatrically. “Do you have a Jedi?”  
  


* * *

  
“Well that went well I think.” Ryloth was shrinking behind them as Luke piloted their A-wing variant.

It wasn’t at all like the ship he was used too except superficially. A-wing’s he’d flown had been seats strapped to engines, blindingly quick and designed to mix it up with Tie-Interceptors on equal terms. This was a heavier craft, armored and shielded and he couldn’t help but miss the speed and grace of the originals. Maybe if it was stripped down to the bare minimum it would be like the ones he remembered, but for now the two-seater was good enough for their purposes.

“It could have gone worse.” Mara was taking down notes, her initial training was coming to the forefront which included detailed after-action reviews. Luke knew that she’d make him do it too, helped by Bel Iblis who was also fully onboard with the procedure. “I’d have preferred to save the Jedi revelation for later, but I won’t deny that it impressed them.”

“They still don’t know about you at least.” He punched in the destination coordinates of their first planned jump and waited for the computer to churn through its calculations. He missed Artoo, he’d be gone already in his X-wing. They had five planned stopovers before they left the A-wing in a parking orbit around a nameless asteroid to rejoin the Fire, and spending ten minutes prior to each one would get old fast.

They’d won the A-wing by what was becoming their standard method, cheating at games of chance with the force. He’d never realized that intermission entertainment at a secondary schools’ sporting events could be so lucrative, it would have made several of his escapes from his father much easier if he could legally acquire a clean ship at will. Of course, as a used civilian model it had thoroughly lacking computer systems and no weapons, but it was less recognizable than even the modified Jade’s Fire.

“Yes, and I’d prefer to keep it that way. You’re going to be become pretty well known fairly quickly, I’d prefer that I stay less well known.”

“Do you think that’ll work?” He didn’t think that the Empire had precise enough forensic data to identify either of them. Mara had been meticulous about removing evidence when they first infiltrated the Ubiqtorate, and every other time they’d been active they’d only left burned out rubble. However they had nearly limitless resources, and if his heritage was discovered the 'nearly' would go away.

“Long term no, but there’s got to be a bunch of Jedi still alive and hiding.”

“Do you think we should try to find them?” Luke had searched exhaustively in their old galaxy, but most of the leads on surviving Jedi had been traps. Even without the different history here he didn’t have any idea on where to look, past Tatooine and Dagobah.

“If we keep making waves they’ll find us. Unless you want to reconsider Yoda and Kenobi.”

“I’d prefer to leave myself and Leia as a contingency. Besides, if they were willing to act“- He cut himself off. He missed both the Jedi Masters, and a large part of him wanted to seek them out, but their evasions about Vader made him somewhat leery of them. Their plan had worked, and he wasn’t sure how much of it had been a plan rather than chance, but waiting for a child to kill his own father in ignorance still stung. “Maybe Yoda.”

“Well we can talk about it more later.” He could hear Mara reclining her seat behind him, an incredible perk of the civilian model. “Wake me up in a couple hours, I want to get back on the standard sleep schedule.”

He nodded, and when the computer chimed he engaged the hyperdrive to launch them into the stars.


	8. VIII

Luke was not a fan of the sole workout machine aboard the Jade’s Fire. It was designed for a range of humanoid species, which meant that it was awkward for all of them. He was hardly a giant, Mara was even shorter, but he couldn’t adjust the seat or the handles in a way to make it at all comfortable. The only saving grace was that he wasn’t sure if there actually was a comfortable setting. Mara could hate it just as much but be unwilling to suffer defeat from an inanimate assembly of metal and cables. If that was the case he wasn’t going to be the first one to complain about it.  
  
Part of his annoyance with it was probably from how it matched his new hand. The synthflesh had started sending random nerve signals, and the reflex emulation had made it unreliable. If he really had to he could control it with the force, ensuring its grip was tight, but that would take effort and energy he might not have to spare. He made the choice to replace it for the same reason he trained physically, it made him better able to focus when he needed to.  
  
Even with that it would have been nice if the hand didn’t look like bones dipped in liquid plastic and left to solidify. It was a top of the line prosthetic and was supposed to be extremely durable. An advertisement for it had someone crushing a brick with their new appendage, but the design aesthetic was lacking. He’d be wearing a glove for the foreseeable future, just like his father.  
  
“When can I go outside?” Mara’s question surprised him, he couldn’t afford to be so distracted a three-year-old could sneak up on him. It was even more annoying since her curious maturity was leaving her. He hadn’t shared his suspicions, but privately he was sure that the Emperor had given up on her. He suspected that similarly to the way Mara and the Imperial Navy had lost something with the shock of his death, that the young girl was no longer being driven by his will.  
  
That was probably for the best overall. The childhood that produced a woman like Mara Jade wasn’t ideal, but Luke had only limited experience with children. Mara’s previous behavior had been unusual, but at least she’d been easy to deal with.  
  
Letting the handgrips retract back into their neutral position Luke stood from the machine’s seat. “I’ll ask, they should be mostly finished by now.”  
  
Mara followed him closely as he walked towards what was becoming their communications room. Initially they’d centralized their transmitters to make sure the girl couldn’t get at them, now they simply needed more room to fit in the required hardware.  
  
This call wouldn’t be anything too special, so he just flipped on a white noise generator. It might still be unneeded, but eventually they’d need to make sure their unaltered voices were never sent over lines where they could be intercepted.  
  
“This is Sela.” Mara’s voice was barely recognizable, even with the background noise. There was a trick to distorting your voice enough to fool a scanner, Luke had never gotten the hang of it.  
  
“What’s your ETA?” She and Bel Iblis had gone together to get groceries and body armor that fit him. Mostly groceries, unlike him they hadn’t learned to ignore the complete lack of taste of military rations that were older than they were and demanded slightly better fare.  
  
“We’re just finishing up. Why do you ask?”  
  
“How do you feel about a family excursion?” The line was silent for a moment as she ran the idea over.  
  
“One of us needs to be on the ship at all times.”  
  
“That’s not a no.” He glanced down to see Mara staring at the speaker intently. “She’s been good.”  
  
“What does she even want to do?” It sounded like they’d left whatever building they were in, conversation had been replaced by speeders.  
  
“I want to see the zoo!” Apparently it had been a mistake to let her watch the holonet, the commercials for the zoo had been frequent and eye searing. For a child brought up in a carefully controlled environment the advertisements targeting a jaded audience must be especially compelling. He could never let Mara know he’d thought that.  
  
“Once we get back, we’ll see.”  
  


* * *

  
“’We’ll see’ always meant no when I was a kid.” Garm had accepted staying behind with almost unseemly speed. He clearly believed their cover story and didn’t want to get in the way of an outing. Alternatively, he just wanted some time for himself, away from the demands of revolution and toddlers.  
  
Mara was oblivious to their conversation, as she raced from exhibit to exhibit with unrestrained glee. He didn’t blame her, the first time he’d been to a menagerie of similar scale his reaction had been similar.  
  
“My tutors realized quickly that I could see through their prevarications.” She spoke as if it meant nothing to her, but he could feel the slight pride. “Being honest was the best way for them to teach, except when it wasn’t. Not too far!” Her shout and quick strides over to where Mara was staring into the pit of some predator with too many eyes looked startlingly domestic.  
  
Luke moved slower to catch up, surveying the crowds. They appeared normal, like those he’d seen on any number of planets and missions. The Mid-Rim world they were on was nice, the sort of place he’d once have killed to be from instead of Tatooine. It was mostly human, he could see an Ithorian over the crowd but they seemed to be a member of the staff.  
  
As he reached them he couldn’t help but notice their identical expressions as they watched the animal casually tear into some carcass. Their simultaneous disgust and interest almost demanded a picture, and he wasn’t the only one who thought so. It was the work of a moment to give the park photographer a hard bump to ruin his snapshot before he moved to interfere with any future images.  
  
“Who wants to see the rancors?” Mara didn’t object to his slinging an arm around her, nor did her younger self protest about being picked up as he led them away from the camera.  
  
“Do you think they have rancors here?” Mara’s voice was cool as she shifted to hold his hand. “They’re pretty temperamental.”  
  
“Nonsense, I’ve always had luck with them.” He managed not to wince as he spoke, both because of the memories and because the girl on his shoulders had decided that his hair worked as reins.  
  
“They’ve never done what I’ve wanted them to.”  
  
“You can make rancors do tricks?” The voice from above was awed.  
  
“She can’t. I, on the other hand, can make them roll over and play dead.” Mara’s irritation at him was tempered with amusement. The zoo had turned into a decent idea after all.  
  
They’d reached a crossroads and Luke spun, looking at the signs. They’d just come from the exhibit on native predators and they had a multitude of choices for their next section. There was the aquatic center, some sort of insect house he wasn’t going to, and a sign for creatures of the mid-rim. As far as he knew rancors had been spread across the galaxy by some ancient race, the mid-rim was as good an originating place as any. He’d mostly seen them in the outer rim, Dathomir had been lousy with them, but they had time to explore.  
  
“This way?” Mara shrugged and went with him, still holding his hand.  
  
There weren’t any rancors, although he did have a soft spot for the carnivorous plants he saw. He might not be patient himself, but he could appreciate it in others. It was only on the way out that he saw something that worried him.  
  
The bright green sign looked new, and he had to carefully regulate his strength to avoid crushing Mara’s hand. “Beasts of Kashyk” it read with a picture of a Wookie clinging to a wroshyr. Mara pulled her hand from his, and looked to see what had stirred him.  
  
“Shall we take a look?” She didn’t protest, instead falling into step with him. People got out of his way as he walked, instinctively sensing his ire. He strengthened his shields, he shouldn’t let them leak.  
  
There was a Wookie in a cage, and he didn’t need the force to sense its sadness. The enclosure was nice as far as it went, treed and lush, but it still held a sentient. The wookie didn’t look up at the gawkers, only fiddling with something. Mara moved to his side and didn’t say a word, but he felt her intention.  _Later_.  
  
He nodded and turned, walking quickly. It might be foolish, no it was, but he was a Jedi. Letting children rot in slavery wasn’t something he could see without doing something. There were billions across the galaxy and he could never help them all, but if everyone helped one-  
  
He felt a sudden surge of both joy and hatred behind him, and he spun.  
  
A painful siren split the air and the crowds went still in instinctive terror. The doors were all opening.  
  
Luke was already moving, as was Mara. Through training they’d both gained the discipline to act while others faltered. He didn’t have any real weapons, and while he was sure Mara was concealing several they wouldn’t help in a panicked mob, or against some of the creatures who were about to realize they were free.  
  
They didn’t run, sprinting could be the action to shock the crowd into insanity, but they hurried towards the exit. If they could get out cleanly-  
  
A deep roar split the air. They might be seeing a rancor after all.  
  
Human screams followed it, and the crowd was a mob. Luke grabbed Mara, they couldn’t get separated and felt the impact of a hundred bodies pressing into the narrow pathways. The force made him strong, but he’d rather not need it.  
  
“Up there!” Suiting action to words he leapt onto the top of a cage, Mara followed him as he began to run along the roofs. In all the chaos they should go largely unnoticed and they could make far better time unhindered- The force screamed a warning and he spun, pulling Mara from his shoulders as he lashed out with his prosthetic. Some six-winged tusked thing crashed into the ground, its head shattered by his metal hand as he kept running.  
  
Mara wasn’t carrying a toddler and without the burden she was faster than him. She had a small blaster in one hand and a knife in the other as she scanned for more threats. “The whole park is like this!”  
  
Luke jumped to the next roof before answering, his arm was already complaining from the weight and he drew on the force for strength. “I don’t want to fight our way out of here, is there a shelter or an evac plan?”  
  
Mara slowed as she surveyed the park. He turned so Mara was between them, and looked to the sky. There were quite a few flying animals, ranging from a blimp thing with tentacles dragging on the ground to something more serpentine that looked like a ribbon in a tornado as it raced through the sky for freedom.  
  
“There.” He followed her outstretched arm towards where the crowds seemed to be converging. “If nothing else it’s organized.”  
  
“Alright then.” He shifted his cargo in preparation for the run when their destination suddenly stopped drawing newcomers. It was fascinating to see the change pulse into the population, he’d been told crowds could be modeled as waves but until now he’d never understood.  
  
The air above the previous center was changing color, darkening and with force given clarity he could tell there were insects swarming. Bubbles were separating out as entire hives split into empty air, whoever had done this hadn’t messed around, all the containment systems had dropped.  
  
Mara stiffened in his arm and he felt her dread, he didn’t hesitate as he leapt off the roof, pulling the elder with an effort of will.  
  
He landed easily, as did Mara although less gracefully. He turned to see what had spooked him, and had to suppress his atavistic fear.  
  
It wasn’t a rancor, but something like it. It was heavily built with two massive forelimbs ending in nasty looking claws. Now that they’d spotted it the beast abandoned stealth, rearing back and hammering its chest as it roared.  
  
Mara’s holdout spat fire into its skull, something that only seemed to irritate it. It jumped after them and its landing shook the ground. Luke didn’t need to see Mara to know that she agreed with him, he turned and ran.  
  
He wasn’t hiding now, not concealing his presence, he couldn’t if he wanted to stay ahead of the rampaging beast. It felt good though, it was like standing up straight after an eternity in the cockpit as he let the full power of the Skywalker legacy surge through him.  
  
It didn’t take effort or thought to move, he simply chose and the galaxy bent itself to his purpose. He didn’t need his eyes to see where he should step or to find Mara, vision was too limited, light was too slow. The branches he bounded through were like a thoroughfare as he led the monster into another predator’s lair, he didn’t need to dodge the whipping tendrils of the tree as they’d already missed. He felt slight disappointment as the creature’s spiny back shredded the toxic lashes, but it was only fleeting as he kept on running.  
  
He burst onto an empty path and flung the screaming toddler into Mara’s arms. He pushed her to keep running as he turned to fight. He remembered what the animal was now, a Terentatek, born and bred to kill Jedi, or at least to try. Not today.  
  
His hand functioned as advertised when he grabbed a durasteel bar from a fence, the metal screamed as it tore free. It wasn’t his lightsaber, but a six foot lance would be enough with the force. Anything would be with the force.  
  
Mara had stopped retreating, still shooting largely ineffectually as Luke waited for the perfect moment.  
  
The Terentatek took its eyes off him for a split second, lifting one of its massive claws to shield its face from Mara’s blaster fire, and Luke  _moved_.  
  
It was back on him instantly, the product of Sith alchemy was dangerously clever, but Luke was too close. He dodged the lightning fast swipe with a long slide and then leapt to its shoulder, his metal hand letting him grasp the razor-sharp spikes without injury.  
  
The creature’s other limb whipped towards him, but Luke was protected by the beast’s head. It reared back trying to dislodge him, and when that didn’t work it lurched forward, its spine contorting to try again with a bigger windup. It was what he was waiting for. As it leaned forward its spikes were no longer impenetrable armor, they exposed its softer flesh. The force guided and sped his hand, the bar lanced into the beast and vanished.  
  
Luke leapt free, as the Terentatek staggered, turning in confusion and pain. It tried to roar again, but this time it wasn’t stentorian, only a ragged cry accompanied by a spray of dark blood. It was dead, its brain just didn’t notice it yet.  
  
“Let’s go!” Mara didn’t need another invitation and he took the girl back from her when he caught up. He relaxed his hold on the force as they loped towards the parking lots, more mundane concerns flooded him.  
  
His display wouldn’t go unnoticed, he’d sent a flare announcing his presence up across the galaxy. Palpatine’s agents would be coming. Vader would be coming.


	9. IX

They didn’t immediately go back to the ship, instead driving into the heart of the city and returning their rented speeder. It had been paid for with a fake identity that would stand up to a cursory check, and there wouldn’t be any way to link it to the Jade’s Fire. Mara had been pacified with ice cream and Luke sat watching her while her elder counterpart organized their exfiltration.  
  
“Alright, here’s the plan.” Mara dropped into an empty chair and stole a spoonful of the dessert before continuing. “We’re dropping her off at the Fire, then you and I stealing something and making an exciting exit to somewhere a bit more crowded.”  
  
Something that, aggressive was a nice nonjudgmental word, demanded a little contemplation, so Luke gave it a moment to sink in.  
  
“Is that it?”  
  
“What else is there? Garm’s warming the engines up as we speak.” Mara stole another scoop, before standing and pulling her doppelganger with her. “Any thoughts on where we should go?”  
  
He guessed they were doing this after all. “Somewhere that they’re forced to use infantry, as opposed to shelling us from orbit. That means somewhere notable, maybe coreward.”  
  


* * *

  
The Inquisitor stared at the approaching planet.  
  
In the void he could almost feel the forces governing the galaxy, the vast conflicting powers that would crush him in an instant. The dark side, the light side, they were fated to battle, and he was one more soldier in the endless war. When he’d been a Jedi the knowledge might have broken him, but he’d been taught better since.  
  
He turned his fear into anger. Fury at the cruel masters who drove him here, rage at their careless treatment of him, and most of all a seething hatred for the Jedi he was sent to defeat.  
  
He’d seen the holos of the human battling Vader. He’d felt the unleashed power as had everyone else with skill across the mid-Rim. He hadn’t recognized it, and that burned. His wrath wouldn’t be sated or diminished by reasonable explanations that one Jedi wouldn’t have mattered. He and the others had been betrayed. Because of this Jedi’s cowardice he was a slave to the Sith, twisted into an instrument of their foul purpose. For that he would kill him, regardless of his masters’ wishes. He’d have his vengeance.  
  
There were footsteps behind him, the measured cadence of the clones.  
  
He didn’t turn to look at the stormtrooper, only waiting for it to speak.  
  
“The Jedi’s ship has been located Inquisitor. It’s been burnt and the security recordings of the surrounding areas have been destroyed.”  
  
The great shipyards of Corellia gleamed before them, dwarfing his Star Destroyer. Somewhere in there the Jedi had fled, no doubt hoping to cause mayhem. He must have known he’d be followed, his actions on Draydir hadn’t been subtle nor had his theft of a racing yacht. The Jedi wanted them to follow him. He wouldn’t want what would happen next.  
  
“Get fighters up. Instruct the system authorities that all outgoing hyperspace travel is banned until further notice.” It wouldn’t be possible, the planet was notoriously infested with smugglers, but it would cut the numbers to track by an order of magnitude. “Have the gunners lay in targeting solutions on all major production facilities.” If the Jedi hoped to hide behind the Navy’s construction budget he’d die in turbolaser fire. “Prepare my shuttle, and mobilize the regiment, they know their orders.” Hopefully they wouldn’t and they’d kill the Jedi for him. Any reason to slaughter clones was worthwhile, it would be some small measure of revenge.  
  
The gantries and umbilicals stretched along and into the shell of some massive new construction. His pilot maneuvered them past the platforms and towards a superstructure surrounding the bridge, sticking out like a goiter from the smooth lines of the destroyer. The production hub was blackened and battered by long years of service, and it sharply contrasted with the bone white hull.   
  
The hangar doors opened rapidly, they were armored to ensure that construction debris couldn’t easily penetrate the hull, and his shuttle was dwarfed by the cavernous expanse revealed. Most of the battleship could be built in zero gravity and vacuum, but plenty of tasks needed skilled technicians on site. Giving them an atmosphere and freeing them from magnetic boots made their jobs easier, enough to justify the expense of the cocoonlike frame and the bulbous production hub.  
  
He disembarked before the shuttle’s ramp touched the ground, his men following at a trot. The Navy captain responsible for overseeing the civilian yard met him and fell into step. He could feel the man’s fear concealed beneath a mask of professionalism and basked in it.  
  
“Report.”  
  
“We found the Jedi’s ship-“  
  
“I’m aware. What have you done since then?”  
  
“I mustered my men, called for reinforcements, and started to pull the workers back into their dormitories to ensure we have a clear field.” It was reasonable, the Inquisitor had no complaints.  
  
“Send them back out.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Send the workers back to their tasks. I won’t repeat myself again captain.” They were hunting a Jedi, their reluctance to risk innocents was an advantage that shouldn’t be squandered.  
  
He felt the spike of outrage that was quickly stifled. “Of course, Inquisitor.”  
  
“Seal the passages to the orbital ring, stop all incoming shipments. Lower the dorsal shields and turn off all operational ECM.”  
  
“We can’t- I mean that violates shipyard protocol Inquisitor. Anyone will be able to get our technical readouts.” He didn’t bother to respond, only glancing at the increasingly pale captain. “It will be as you say.”  
  
The inquisitor strode towards the transportation tubes that ran down the spine of the ship, watching the navy officer shout orders into his commlink. He took out his own and signaled his destroyer.  
  
“Alert your gunners that the shields are down, and have them transition to planetary bombardment targeting systems.” Without the electronic noise they could use more accurate sensors, ones that would normally be damaged by countermeasures. He had no desire to be killed by his own turbolasers like so many deluded fools had been. “Inform Lord Vader I am on site and beginning my hunt. You have full authority to deal with anyone attempting to violate our cordon, or hindering our activities in anyway.”  
  
He closed the channel before it could reply to him and put his commlink back on his belt. He ran his fingers over his saber, and as ever the sickening darkness revolted him. The corrupted gem at its heart had been with him for a lifetime, he’d used it for long years before he’d been forced to profane it. As ever his anger rose, giving him the power he’d need.  
  
The Jedi was at hand, doing something in the guts of the destroyer. He didn’t know precisely where or what, but as he stepped into the car he knew the force would serve him in this. Without doubt he punched in a deck level, and alone of his men he didn’t sway as the transporter accelerated.  
  
“Lockdown all decks within ten levels of my destination, station a platoon at all major junctions and begin sweeping the levels room by room.” The incomplete destroyer was a warren, but his troops knew their business. They should have enough to secure the correct region, and even if they didn’t their deaths would be just as useful. No matter how many the Jedi killed he would catch up eventually. “Ensure that all squads report in every sixty seconds.” In earlier days he’d traveled the galaxy and had hunted on some backwater planet with the local potentates. They’d used prey animals to draw out their real targets, at the time it had disgusted him, but now he just felt satisfaction at the thought.  
  
They’d arrived at their destination while he gave his orders, the doors hissed open to reveal an empty corridor. He exited and turned right with the certainty the force provided, ducking under the cable bundles and over the occasional missing deck plate. The hall was dim, the final lights hadn’t been installed yet, but he didn’t need his path to be illuminated. His target did that for him, he could feel the power before him and he knew that his steps wouldn’t falter until their confrontation.  
  
He pulled the schematics of the ship to the forefront of his mind, he hadn’t bothered to fully memorize them, but he knew they were approaching the primary power control room. It was a logical target for sabotage, and by necessity it was one of the only systems nearly completed. A gesture sent his soldiers ahead of him, he had no desire to trip any traps, but all of them sped up. The Jedi would be dead at his feet soon.  
  
From this close he could feel the Jedi’s power. It didn’t have the sheer intensity of a Council member, but it was tightly controlled in a way he’d almost forgotten. For too long he’d fought Padawans and the weak, here at last was something worthy. He was surprised that Vader hadn’t easily dealt with the Jedi, he’d slain far mightier, but the will of the Force was mysterious. It was the Jedi’s fate to die here and now, his earlier escape meant nothing.  
  
His team drew up around the door he indicated, it was an unremarkable one, the label indicated that it was just an alternate power surge monitoring facility. Perhaps there was something more, he’d worry about it after the target was dead. He clicked his commlink twice, the agreed-on signal to indicate he’d reached the Jedi, and then waved the Stormtroopers into breaching positions. He took a second to center himself, drawing on his fury at what he’d been made into, and then ripped the door from its hinges.  
  
His men poured into the room shooting, and he drew his light saber- only a lifetime of training let him dive away from the explosion.  
  
His reflexive shield protected him from the fireball, and the Force let him withstand the shockwave, but it still took a moment for his ears to stop ringing.  
  
His troops were dead, all but one who was crying piteously and gripping a jagged piece of durasteel that had stabbed into his abdomen. He shook his head to try to clear it, walking towards the room he made sure to stomp the shrapnel deeper into the clone’s stomach. The fires were mostly out, only a few wires sputtered and smoked, but they provided enough light to see that the only corpses were stormtroopers.  
  
The injured one was still alive somehow. The Inquisitor drank in his pain and terror before seizing the torn metal, twisting it and yanking it free. The moans suddenly became gurgles, he must have hit a lung, but he had larger concerns. The ringing had mostly cleared, enough for him to notice the buzzing of his commlink.  
  
“What!”  
  
“Sir! What’s your status? Your team flatlined and-“  
  
“I’m continuing the hunt.” He’d been tricked, and he didn’t know how. The presence had flickered out just before the explosion, and now the guidance of the force had deserted him. He spun on his heel, feeling for anything, when the lights all went dark. The wash of fear that followed confirmed the effect wasn’t local, the whole ship had felt it.  
  
With the Jedi’s presence near a power station the cause was obvious. He waited a second, emergency illumination running off chemical power should turn on- no it hadn’t been installed yet. He clicked his commlink out of curiosity, it was dead as he expected. A hypermatter reactor was more than strong enough to generate an electromagnetic pulse that could damage even hardened systems.  
  
His saber hissed out, pushing back the shadows with its bloody light. He closed his eyes though, soaking in the fear of the crew, searching for the spikes that would be the Jedi killing. Without opening them he started to run, cutting his saber’s power as he loped through the darkness. They’d clearly hoped to isolate him, to make the fight one on one without stormtroopers helping. They’d get their wish.  
  
The distance dropped rapidly, the force sped him across the distance, but he slowed when he got closer. The floor outside the main reactor control was littered with the bodies of clones, some were missing limbs, and others bore the carbon scoring of blaster fire. The Jedi had been planning to blackout the ship if they brought a weapon that still worked.  
  
The force told him to proceed though, so he stepped through the open door. There was a figure kneeling in front of a control station with its panels missing. She-not the Jedi then- had a penlight and was doing something to the system, probably further sabotage.  
  
He ignited his lightsaber, this would be quick, and at last she seemed to notice him. He couldn’t feel fear from her as she stared at him, only a burst of excitement. She set the light down, and he caught of a glimpse of red as a reflection of the flashlight’s beam swept across her head. Her hand went to her hip, to her blaster, but it didn’t settle on it.  
  
She drew a lightsaber, and this time her excitement was sustained.  
  
“Well? Are we going to do this or not?” He charged.  
  
His fury at a random woman carrying a weapon meant for her betters lasted two strokes, then his typical rage at surviving Jedi surged forward. She’d hidden, she hadn’t helped, she hadn’t died with the rest. She’d fled, and now she’d suffer for it.  
  
Her technique was crude. She had power, he could feel it, but she lacked experience. She’d fought for her life before, he could tell from her composure, but she wasn’t prepared for the subtleties of Makashi. Her blocks were stronger than they should be, her blue blade swinging wildly as it didn’t meet the expected resistance.  
  
“Your master failed you.” He slipped aside from her attack and placed a console between them, keeping his saber in a high guard to dissuade her from doing anything foolish. “His lies have led you here, to your death.”  
  
“I’m feeling pretty good about being here.” He could hear fatigue in her voice, the brief duel had worn on her. She hadn’t truly let the force flow through her, instead relying on her all too mortal muscles.  
  
“Arrogance.” He mirrored her movements around the control panels, keeping their bulk between them. “I wonder who taught you first. I can usually discern a few clues, but all I can sense from you is a crippling overspecialization against form five.”  
  
He lunged, for the first time meeting her strength to strength and her response was predictable. She wasn’t ready for the blow to her ribs, or the second exploiting her shock and pain. Her sloppy counter was batted to the side and he let her reel backwards. For the first time he felt fear from the woman.  
  
“Your master might be able to survive a brute like Vader, but he can’t pass along those skills.” He advanced and she retreated, the very act of keeping her guard up seeming to exhaust her. “You can’t even draw on the force properly. How could you think to be a Jedi?”  
  
She was in the hallway now, and he could feel that the end was near. The regular terrain would ensure that there were no unexpected surprises, his skill would win the day. He would have to let her live, the other Jedi, the only Jedi he thought scornfully, would need to be baited into a trap.  
  
“I don’t have to be a Jedi to fight monsters like you.” That was interesting, there was anger there.  
  
He could feel the increased strength of her attacks, but throughout their duel strength hadn’t really mattered.  
  
“And you’re any better? I can sense the darkness in you even now. Give up and live, the Jedi are dead.”  
  
Her face twisted into a scowl, and the force screamed in warning. He slapped aside her attack, but the threat wasn’t her.  
  
He threw himself into a roll, just barely avoiding the emerald blade that whipped through the air before returning to its master’s hand.  
  
He tried to settle into a defensive stance, but couldn’t. This was the reason for her caution against attacks, the Jedi hammered at him with impossible speed. The Inquisitor needed space, but his parries weren’t enough to deflect the monster battering at him.  
  
He called upon his rage, this Jedi could have done something against the Sith, but it didn’t matter. Against the maelstrom of the Force his skill didn’t matter, it was a miracle he was even holding onto his blade in the face of his enemy.  
  
Then the blows stopped, the Jedi was looking down the hall and the Inquisitor felt what he had a second later. Clones.  
  
The wave of telekinetic force launched him down the corridor, rolling uncontrollably, the leading Stormtroopers only barely managed to not trip over him before realizing their peril.  
  
The Jedi was still attacking, charging out of the darkness like a vengeful spirit. They fired, shooting to kill, but the bolts came back, invariably finding the clone that shot them. The Inquisitor got to his feet, ripped a commlink from a fallen trooper and ran.  
  
The blasterfire stopped almost immediately after he left, but he didn’t dare imagine they’d killed him. It took a second of fumbling to turn the device on, he didn’t know what the clone had been thinking with it off, but the question answered itself.  
  
“This is the Inquisitor, all available troops to my position!”  
  
There was a cacophony from the device, commanders demanding updates and clearance codes, before the voice of his destroyer’s captain silenced the rest.  
  
“We can’t keep contact with anyone on the ship, the pulses have been happening every few minutes-“  
  
With a squeal the commlink shorted out, he crushed it in a sudden rage and flung it to the ground as he kept sprinting. He’d get off this ship, and then have it destroyed. The troops that had failed him would be a small price to pay for the death of a Jedi.  
  
The entire ship shuddered beneath his feet, he recognized the feeling, they’d been struck. He could hear the faint vibrations that indicated continuing contact, he needed to see what was going on. He changed his course towards the outer hull but it was a long climb from the core of the ship.  
  
The unfinished nature of the ship helped him, he found a gaping chasm that stretched to the exterior of the structure. He bounded up, using the force to make impossible leaps as he raced to the surface. What he found when he reached it was nothing short of pandemonium.  
  
The Star Destroyer had tugs attached to it, burrowed into it like lice on a mangy animal. They were beneath the hull plating and were sheltered by the durasteel armor from his destroyer’s turbolasers. They were shooting, but the tugs were too entrenched to be easily destroyed as they rotated the ship to put the bulk of its armor between them and the artillery. It was a miracle that there was still an atmosphere across the outside, the production facility seemed largely unharmed but as the Inquisitor looked forward he could see that would change.  
  
They’d ripped free from the orbital ring, scattering debris wildly across the local space, but they were moving along it. He could see the skeletal frame of another Imperial class destroyer approaching, and they weren’t slowing down.  
  
The Jedi had wanted to make an impact, this would qualify. He needed to get off this ship before it crashed, and if he did it quickly enough he could still intercept the Jedi when they left.  
  
The thought had barely crossed his mind before the deck plating at the bow erupted, and then in a sequential line along the wedge, the rest of the escape pods followed.  
  
His destroyer shot at them, but there were hundreds rocketing towards Corellia, and he could already see the plasma flare of reentry. Most would make it- maybe even all he hadn’t seen one struck yet- and then the reason dawned on him. They’d set their guns to fire on stationary targets without countermeasures, the escape pods were anything but.  
  
The fighters weren’t in position, and he could only watch as the pods vanished beneath him. If the Jedi had been on one he’d have escaped, if he hadn’t it didn’t change anything. The Inquisitor needed to get off the ship.  
  
He didn’t go back into the destroyer, he didn’t have time, instead he sprinted across the outside of the ship. If the atmosphere failed he’d die, but if he was deep enough in the ship to survive he’d never make it off in time.  
  
He ignited his saber as he went, perhaps one of the clones would manage to see it and think for once, and drew upon his anger at being defeated to give him the strength to run. He could see the distortion of the artificial atmosphere against the stars, and more worryingly he could see waves crossing it. He could recognize the signs of imminent failure and his terror lent him quickness.  
  
He was surprised to realize he had reached the production hub, somehow he’d climbed the entire superstructure in a blur of fear fueled speed. It was just in time, the atmospheric was failing and the air howled past him into the void. He managed to seize a protrusion to stay on the surface, but the gale only lasted a second before he was in the silence of vacuum.  
  
Half-forgotten training came to the forefront, he opened his mouth as the air in his lungs rushed out past his boiling tongue. He had at most a minute before he lost consciousness, more than enough with the force.  
  
He launched himself towards the production hub, his saber ignited. He carved a hole into its hull, carefully beveling the edges, before pushing it in in with the force and following.  
  
He sucked down a breath of air before seizing the hull plate. His skin bubbled as he grabbed the still glowing edge but he needed to seal the leak. The plate slipped into place, reducing the roar of air to a sharp hiss, but the Inquisitor was already moving.  
  
All around him was mayhem, if people hadn’t panicked with the darkness the imminent collision had done it. Most got out of his way when they saw his lit saber, but some were more foolish. They didn’t get a chance to learn from their mistakes.  
  
His muscles were burning when he reached the hanger he’d started in, the fights and the flights had worn on him, but he still drew himself up before entering.  
  
The captain he’d confronted at the beginning saw him and his anger outweighed his fear.  
  
“Inquisitor! What have you done? How did-“The Inquisitor interrupted him.  
  
“Get me a ship.” The body at his feet persuaded the remaining officers and they pointed dumbly at his shuttle. Of course, his crew would have kept the shields on. He’d been particular that his shuttle should always be ready for immediate departure, orders that had proven useful once again.  
  
He called up to the clone as he entered, ignoring the chaos behind him. “Back to my destroyer soldier.”  
  
It wasn’t entirely foolish, the clone didn’t question his orders. He heard the pilot transmit to the destroyer, they’d need a flight plan to avoid the bombardment, and strode to the port hole.  
  
He watched as the hanger floor receded, the scurrying motions of the panicked workers a sign of their desperation.  
  
“Inquisitor, they’re refusing to open the hanger doors.” He glanced at the clone, his raised eyebrow demanding an explanation. “Without the external atmosphere fields the hanger won’t be pressurized.”  
  
Fools. He walked to the cockpit, toggling the channel to speak to his destroyer’s captain. “Fire on the hanger doors, low power.” His subordinates knew better than to ask questions.  
  
The shields couldn’t quite block the noise of the explosions, but the silence that followed was sweet. Air pressure pushed the ruined slabs of durasteel into space, and the shuttle nosed its way out and into freedom. He’d done it.  
  
“Get me back to my ship.”  
  
He couldn’t quite hold back a smile as he watched the destroyer’s flight away from him. He felt the intense fear of the clones onboard and lost in the darkness. The collision with the next ship was made more beautiful by the anticipation, even if it hadn’t killed the Jedi.  
  
He’d lived, now to deal with the fallout of the debacle.


	10. X

“Well that could have gone better.”  
  
They’d linked back up with Garm and the  _Fire_. In the chaos of the colliding Star Destroyers the Navy hadn’t been able to maintain a blockade, and in a new and freshly stolen ship they reached the agreed-on coordinates. They arrived to see Garm watching the holonews, their exploits had drawn attention.  
  
“’Separatist holdouts kill thousands’ isn’t really what I thought your distraction would consist of.” If Luke couldn’t feel the admiral’s depression his expression would have been unreadable. “Do you think that it will build support?” Mara tensed next to him, but Luke spoke before she could defend them.  
  
“We’re going to be party to a lot of messy things in this war, but this wasn’t one of them.”  
  
“Do you know how many-“  
  
“I stopped keeping track a long time ago.” He felt old suddenly, shockingly. “Shipyards are a military target, and smashing Star Destroyers at any stage in their construction will be a frequent occurrence.”  
  
Garm stared, as if he’d never truly seen them before erupting. “It was a civilian yard! They were-“  
  
“Part of the Empire. Everything is, or will be.” Mara’s interjection silenced him. “Anything that doesn’t serve the Emperor will be forced to, or destroyed.”  
  
“You can’t know that.” Garm didn’t sound like the general they’d known. “Can you?”  
  
Luke didn’t answer. Artful truths could be useful, but he didn’t have much taste for them. It didn’t matter, Bel Iblis took it as confirmation.  
  
“If that’s what he’s going to be able to do, then why even fight? If you can see the future so clearly, why bother? Take your daughter and flee to the Outer Rim!”  
  
“Too late for that.” Mara fished through her pockets before pulling a datachip free and inserting it into the holoplayer. “This guy’s going to be after us, along with his friends.”  
  
The darksider appeared in the air, his pallor accentuated by the medium. The markings on his eyes and forehead were striking, Luke hadn’t taken the time to study the blood red tattoos. They were unsettling geometric, unnatural. Combined with his yellow eyes and sharpened teeth the being was designed to intimidate. Everything Palpatine touched was twisted to horror.  
  
“What is that? A Sith?” The prospect of a tangible enemy reignited something in the admiral. “You didn’t kill him?”  
  
“No, something lesser. He ran.” Mara sounded satisfied, but it was faked. “We needed to get off the Destroyer so we couldn’t run him down.”  
  
“Well that’s encouraging.” Garm was staring at the hologram, it might have been the first overt darksider he’d ever seen. “So, what now?”  
  
“There is some reason for encouragement actually.” Both of the others looked at him skeptically. “The fact that the Empire has these hunters running around indicates that there’s a need. There are more Jedi.”  
  
“What good does that do if we can’t find them?” Mara’s doubt matched Garm’s words.  
  
“I’ve got a good feeling about at least one.”  
  
The impromptu debrief broke up shortly after. Luke knew it would only be a brief reprieve before Mara demanded an exhaustive review, but until then he was enjoying lying down. Flying out of an exploding Star Destroyer hadn’t been the hardest thing he’d ever done, but wrestling a jury-rigged escape pod through debris fields without sensors or more than one window wasn’t easy. Half an hour of rest would do a lot for him. Naturally Mara chose that moment to barge into his cabin.  
  
“I didn’t think you wanted to find others.”  
  
“I didn’t think we could.” He remembered the surge of fear he’d felt from Mara before he arrived to fight, as well as the sheer focus the dark sider exhibited. “But we might need to.”  
  
“If you’re worried about me, don’t be. I’ve got his number for next time.” Without the force, he would have believed her.  
  
“What was it he said again? ‘Crippling overspecialization?’ It makes sense, Yoda taught me to face my father, and Palpatine-“  
  
“Did the same, I know.” Mara looked contemplative, but if she wasn’t vocally objecting she agreed. “I presume we’re going to Dagobah then?”  
  
“Risking Tatooine still seems foolish.” The Empire wasn’t the only threat there, Jabba had a galaxy spanning reach. The sheer concentration of bounty hunters in his service made the system far more dangerous than it should be. Many of those hunters wouldn’t care that the ship wasn’t a good match for the one that escaped Coruscant, even if it wasn’t a match piracy was profitable.   
  
“Have you thought about the impact on our cover then? Yoda won’t know us and he was a big deal.”  
  
“We could just keep Garm on the ship with-“  
  
“No, I know how you hero types work. Bringing along Mara will make us seem much more trustworthy.” Luke didn’t quite know how to respond to that, so he didn’t. “Besides, if we keep her locked on the ship all the time she’s not benefitting as much from her rescue as I’d like. I’m sure she’ll enjoy it.”  
  
Luke had told many people that Dagobah was a disgusting swamp with no redeeming qualities, for some reason no one believed him. He assumed that they thought that after growing up on Tatooine he felt that any water was too much, but he hadn’t minded Yavin. Mara at least would learn. “Well she did like the zoo.” 

* * *

  
  
Their reversion to realspace was careful and far from the planet. Dagobah interfered with navigation equipment, and approaching recklessly could lead to disaster. It was one thing to pry an X-Wing from the muck, the  _Fire_ would be another.  
  
The swirling clouds concealed the forests and the slime, but all four of them were in the cockpit as they descended. It was a rare chance for Luke to be at the controls, Mara usually jealously guarded them. He had a rough idea of where the old Jedi Master was located, but it was vague enough that he didn’t think he could describe it. Instead he let his mind drift, allowing the force to guide his hands.  
  
Mara as ever hated being idle and used her temporary demotion to demonstrate the various controls to her doppelganger. The little girl watched with something approaching the studiousness that she’d first had, and before long they got to the scanners and flipped them on. The sensors could penetrate the fog and trees to reveal the terrain beneath, and to his surprise he recognized landmarks, if ravines and bodies of stagnant water could be called that.   
  
“We’re close.” For the sake of Garm he closed his eyes theatrically. “I can feel his presence.” If Yoda had been migratory he was about to look very foolish.  
  
“Land there.” Mara’s finger stabbed at the readout, at an atypically solid patch of ground. “With the mats in the hold it’ll support our weight.”  
  
“Alright, Captain.” He did a quick circle around the area, and then with a burst of inspiration he adjusted the focus of the scanner, looking for refined metals. There was nothing, no beckon call lying in the mud. Mara raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t explain.   
  
He brought the  _Fire_ down, easing it into a clearing that was just large enough. He halted a meter off the ground, dialing the repulsors to hold the altitude before standing from the controls. “I’ll set up the mats to give you some time to reevaluate hiking.” He gave a wave at the damp mess visible out the windows, everything on the ship was probably already moldy. He couldn’t wait for vacuum, or at least a real sun.  
  
The young girl followed him as he strode for the hold. In a fit of what he could only describe as maternal activity Mara had dressed her in a hazardous environment suit. He didn’t know where she’d gotten a child sized one, he was half convinced it was originally meant for Ewoks. She carefully observed Luke pull the appropriate crate from its pile, the force made rearranging the boxes easy, and walked after him as he floated it down to the extended ramp.  
  
She sensibly stayed on the ship after he dropped into the mess with an audible squelch. Wishing he could do the same, Luke popped open the container and started yanking out the rolls. They unfurled easily beneath the landing struts, and a minor electrical current flattened them out in a rigid sheet. It was nice to have a clean surface on the planet, for however briefly it would last.  
  
Mara landed the ship as soon as the pads were down, the repulsors cutting off and various systems spooling down shortly after. In less than a minute, the only noise was the mournful calls of avians and the swishes of vines and reeds.   
  
“Keep the ship warmed up.” Mara was talking to Garm when he got back to the ramp, and the admiral was visibly happy to comply. Luke tried not to look too jealous as he walked to his cabin and grabbed his supplies, it would have been awfully nice if Yoda had a commlink and a ship.  
  
Mara and her younger self were waiting as he got back to the exit, identical expressions of trepidation on their faces.   
  
He tried to think of something encouraging to say. “I don’t think it will be that far.” It didn’t help.  
  
He stopped just before he stepped off the ramp and picked up little Mara. She was going to be tired before they reached Yoda, and if he was going to be carrying her he’d prefer to do it before she was covered in mud. Besides, part of Dagobah’s charm was best seen by carrying around a small occasionally irritating creature. It was Mara’s turn to look jealous as the three of them set off, leaving behind an admiral and a ship with all the comforts of air conditioning, running water, and non-freeze-dried food.  
  
This had better be worth it.


	11. XI

“So this is where you learned all your tricks?”  
  
Luke ducked beneath a vine, and then kept ducking to keep Mara from grabbing it. He remembered one species had microscopic poisonous barbs, but not which one. All the vines looked like moldy rope, and the best bet was to avoid touching any of them. Yoda hadn’t told him about the danger, instead using it as an opportunity to teach him how to purge poisons.   
  
“Pretty much.” He’d spent weeks running through the swamps, back breaking physical training by day and endless lessons on philosophy and the force until he couldn’t stay awake at night. Even then Yoda would wake him, making him use the force to stave off exhaustion as long as possible. It hadn’t been easy, but by the time he left Dagobah he was able to ape the physical abilities of a real Jedi. Teaching Mara had shown him how much there was still to learn.  
  
“It’s a far cry from Coruscant.” Mara was covered in mud up to her thighs, she hadn’t been quite light enough for a branch, something Luke had very emphatically not laughed at her for. “It feels so different, there’s just as much life but its more tranquil. I wonder if they trained Jedi on Coruscant just to make sure they could handle the hubbub.”  
  
“I think Yoda chose Dagobah to hide, not for its suitability to train Jedi.” Or had he here? The Bpfasshi dark Jedi hadn’t come here, or at least his beckon call hadn’t. Maybe Yoda had had an entirely different reason to choose Dagobah, if he even had. Luke banished his doubt, the force had led him here, he’d find Yoda.  
  
“Multi-tasking is a thing.” Mara slowed once she reached a patch of solid ground. From Luke’s brief survival training he thought it was a game trail. She pulled a scanner from her backpack and gave it a quick sweep, looking for large animals. “We’re clear, want to take a quick break?”  
  
Luke answered by pulling the girl from his shoulders, setting her on the ground where she immediately moved to look at the weeds. He and Mara shared a look, the child was far too interested in the flora and fauna of the swamp. Growing up had clearly made Mara more sensible regarding muck.  
  
She was prodding at one of the thick tubers with undisguised curiosity. “Why is this plant looking at-“  
  
Luke was moving before she finished, and more importantly before the creature lunged out of the mud.  
  
His saber was ignited and tentacles rained around him as the blade severed the lashing whips. The beast gave a deep and mournful cry as it lurched backwards, Mara sped it on its way with a few blaster bolts.   
  
“Camouflaged ambush hunting tentacle snakes? It’s like someone made a list of all the worst things and crammed them into one animal.” Mara still had her carbine shouldered as she circled and searched for other threats. “It didn’t even show up on the bio scanner, what does it use for a nervous system? Strings?”  
  
“Those things never work well, I don’t know why you trust it.”  
  
“Like the force did much better.” She grabbed her younger self away from the still twitching tentacles. “Don’t touch those, they’re probably full of neurotoxins or mind-altering parasites.”  
  
“I heard about a species of those that evolved to take over these sessile slugs. It couldn’t control humans or anything else, not coherently, but it did drive them crazy.” Luke wasn’t sure the story was real, Hobbie was an inveterate prankster, but he mixed the truth in often enough that he never knew what to believe.  
  
“Yeah it killed an entire regiment of Storm troopers but not before they started cultivating it everywhere in a city. They had to burn it to the bedrock.” Mara had at last relaxed enough to let her weapon back on its sling. “Sometimes I wonder why people ever go outside without breath masks.”  
  
“Because they can’t just hang out in the air conditioning all the time.” Luke scooped up Mara once again, it was easier to carry her than to shepherd her through the forest. “Let’s finish our job so we can get back to it.”  
  
“No argument here.”  
  
Luke could move faster than the unaided eye could see for a little at least, and running a kilometer only took him a bit under two minutes, but the jungles of Dagobah weren’t suited for speed. By the time night fell they had only covered fifteen kilometers and the force still pulled at them.  
  
Both he and Mara were tired, but the call was driving them as the world grew darker. The clouds blocked the stars, and even the flashlights they’d brought didn’t seem to illuminate much. Fog had risen, and even without the trees they’d be lucky to have fifty meters of unobstructed vision.  
  
“We couldn’t just land closer? This would have taken no time at all to fly.” Mara was only grumbling for conversation, she was on edge like he was. “Instead we’re wandering through a swamp at night, if we’re lucky all we’ll get is a broken ankle.”  
  
“We wouldn’t have landed there without a reason.” Luke was able to say the words with more confidence than he felt. From Mara’s snort he could tell that she could detect his duplicity, she was getting stronger.  
  
“If only we’d used some of my expensive and sensitive equipment to find our Jedi master instead of relying on- What’s that?”  
  
Mara had her carbine up and aimed and Luke had his lightsaber in his hands and lit in an instant. Little Mara was slung under his arm, somewhere she wouldn’t get in the way if he had to fight. He hadn’t felt anything, but that was no excuse for laziness. He put his back to her counterpart and scanned their surroundings, reaching out into the fog. “I’ve got nothing.”  
  
“Kill the lights.” Mara switched off her headlamp and Luke followed suit, shutting down his saber and slipping on night vision goggles. He didn’t see anything with them, but he could feel Mara’s apprehension.  
  
“There’s something there, we need to deal with it.” Her voice was calm, but filled with the confidence she always exhibited in combat. “I’m not resting with it around.”  
  
“Bloody haired and bloody handed.” At the sound of the voice Luke reignited his saber and pulsed the force, all the mist in a hundred yards condensed and fell to the ground. It revealed Yoda astonishingly close, leaning on a cane and staring at them. “And you, filled with power and burning to use it. The way you seize the force so tightly, no wonder you couldn’t feel my coming.”  
  
“Master Yoda,” Luke shut down his saber and flipped the lights back on. Mara did the same, but she kept her hands on her gun. She was still on edge, something not helped by Yoda’s unblinking stare.  
  
“My name that is.” Yoda didn’t move as he did something with the force, something that made Luke’s grasp on the mist vanish. “Yours though, about them I wonder.”  
  
“He’s Luke, I’m Mara, and so is she.” The little girl was fixated on Yoda from her hanging position, Luke let her down gently where she immediately retreated behind Mara. “We’ve come to ask for your help.”  
  
“And what for do warriors need my help?” Yoda wasn’t the same as when he’d trained Luke, if he’d first encountered this being he wouldn’t have dared question him. The- silliness for lack of a better word- was gone, instead he could just feel the Jedi’s immense presence. “My battles are lost, my home cast down, my cause, my Jedi dead.”  
  
“The Jedi are not dead.” Mara spoke before Luke could. “One’s standing before you.”  
  
“Bloody handed I called you, but him?” Yoda shook his head in dismissal. “He’s spilled oceans, enough to soak his desert home.” Yoda’s stared shifted to Luke and it was a struggle to stand against it. “I see you now, another Skywalker born of the force, another power restrained only by fragile bonds. A Jedi is beyond such things.”  
  
“I am a Jedi.” Luke tried to infuse the words with the truth, with the bone deep certainty. “I’ve fought the dark side wherever it appeared, I’ve striven for peace.”  
  
“You have fought and fought and fought. I’ve felt your battles, your war. I can sense your plans, and I can see where they will lead.”  
  
“I was told that the future was difficult to see, that it was always in motion.” Luke was trying to let his emotions go into the force, but it was a trial.  
  
“It is not the future I have to look to, but the past. Jedi cannot win the wars they lead. All you are doing is giving the Sith power. The chaos and terror you will create they thrive on.”  
  
“What would you have us do then? Accept them? Let them enslave us?” Mara once again responded, but she hadn’t beaten him to it this time. He hadn’t known what to say. “While you hide here trillions suffer. We can’t just ignore it!”  
  
“The Sith destroyed the Jedi with their war. Your war will not bring them back.” Yoda looked smaller, almost defeated. “Long years I have lived, and in this they have left me no wiser. One thing I know is that all the power of my Jedi could not defeat Sidious.”  
  
Mara shook her head violently in negation. “Sidious and the Empire must be destroyed. Even if you won’t fight we need your knowledge.”  
  
“I taught Jedi for centuries, all that they know I knew. Is my training what you need?”  
  
“We need to be able to fight better. The Inquisitors are more skilled then us.”  
  
“The Empire can train them too.” Yoda sighed. “You are correct, the dark side must be fought. I will not send you back unarmed, even though I do not see the way to victory.”  
  
“We will show the way.” Luke stepped closer, hoping to persuade his old master. “The Jedi are needed, and the people will see it.”  
  
“They did not when the clones turned on us, nor when Sidious called us traitors. Too long have we been apart from the galaxy, under my leadership. Something must change, though I know not what. I had hoped for guidance in my exile, yet I have not heard it.”  
  
“Whatever you find we still need to fight. Teach us how, and we’ll work to make a galaxy that your future belongs in.” Yoda looked at Mara for a long time after she finished speaking, his eyes occasionally flickering to the still nervous girl behind her.  
  
“It will not be my future, that much I am certain of.” The Jedi turned away from them and leaned on his walking stick. “Come back tomorrow at first light, and bring your ship. Much work is to be done.”


	12. XII

“Someone is being aggressive.” Bail Organa’s voice was unrecognizable through the masking, but Ahsoka could imagine the worry in his tone. “There’s rumors it’s a Jedi.”  
  
“They’re right.” Anyone with talent and a modicum of training would have felt the eruptions in the force. Once it wouldn’t have been noticeable but in this darker galaxy any light was blinding. “Whoever it is, they’re strong.”  
  
“The Council is entirely accounted for.” Bail was kind in not stating the truth bluntly. For all their actions Ahsoka never wanted the Council dead, much less Anakin or Obi-Wan. “Can you think of anyone else with the ability? It was obvious during the war that not all Jedi were equal and this one seems to be more powerful than most.”  
  
“No, but it has been a few years.” A Padawan could have spent time training before deciding they were ready to take on the Empire. “It doesn’t take much time for someone strong in the force to become dangerous, the wisdom to know when to act is what the Jedi spent most of their time trying to teach.”  
  
“Wisdom that’s lacking. Blowing up shipyards over Corellia isn’t going to persuade anyone to fight.”  
  
“It shows the Empire is vulnerable.” Ahsoka didn’t really disagree with Bail, but she’d fought in a war he’d only watched. It was hard to sit back and do nothing while watching the enemy act, and she could sympathize with the Jedi. “After their string of triumphs any injury to the Imperial navy has to encourage someone.”  
  
“Separatist holdouts maybe, whatever is left of them.” There’d be scorn in his voice there. The Separatists might have been the Emperor’s pawns, but Bail wasn’t willing to let them off the hook for their role in ending the Republic. “There isn’t anyone else engaged in organized resistance.”  
  
“Your forces aren’t impressed by the destruction of Star Destroyers?”  
  
“Most of them feel it’s a dirty way to fight, that we’re better than terrorists.”  
  
It was a nice sentiment, but Ahsoka couldn’t help thinking it was naïve. War had changed the Jedi, it would change Organa too. He couldn’t see the entire picture either, not without the force. “They’re more than terrorists. I’ve felt them three times, and the first two never made the holonet.”  
  
That caught his attention, he responded almost before she finished which was an aberration for the normally painfully polite senator. “Where were they? Could you tell?”  
  
“Once in the Core, near Coruscant, five months ago, and then somewhere in the mid-rim, right before Corellia.” It was hardly a precise vector, more of a vague sensation. The only reason she was confident it was close to Coruscant was because the darkness that covered the galaxy had been briefly disrupted at the source, like a gust of wind letting the sun shine through smoke.  
  
“When was the first one precisely?”  
  
“One-ninety-one of this year.” She hadn’t written it down, not wanting to remember the death of another Jedi, but it was easy to recall it with the aid of the force.  
  
“Something happened then.” It was easy to forget that Bail was so well informed. Despite working with him for three years Ahsoka still defaulted to the mode that she’d have more accurate intelligence than senators. It was a dangerous habit, and one she tried to control. “It was announced as a training exercise, but there was a two-hour ban on ships leaving Imperial Center.” That was another dangerous habit, Ahsoka still thought of it as Coruscant when the planet’s new name was mandatory.  
  
“Why would a Jedi dare go there?” It was the heart of the Empire’s power, not to mention the home of the Emperor himself.  
  
“Maybe they didn’t have a choice.”  
  
“You think they were captured?” Ahsoka had fought a dark sider serving the Emperor and hadn’t thought much of his skills. Maybe the Emperor had realized their deficiency and sought to turn Jedi instead. “And then they escaped?”  
  
“Or were set loose.” Ahsoka didn’t immediately respond and Bail seemed satisfied with the silence.  
  
Keeping the channel open for no reason was dangerous though. “Whatever happened, we’ll find out. I’ll let you know if I find anything more.”  
  
“Until then.” The transmission ended, the lack of the scrambler’s white noise made the cockpit seem deathly quiet.  
  
Ahsoka sighed, and then pulled up her itinerary. Since she started working with Bail she’d been his general-purpose troubleshooter, a title that was only occasionally literal. Her current task was scouting planets for their use in the struggle against the Empire. It was boring work that didn’t take full advantage of her skills, but it was important.  
  
The squadrons of A-wings Bail sponsored didn’t fix themselves, nor provide their own bases. Finding planets with sufficient industry to build the needed components and the appropriate lack of curiosity to host them was vital. Ahsoka could meet with the contacts and tell if they were worth working with, and just how far they could be trusted better than anyone else in Bail’s employ. The answer was almost always no, and not at all, but she’d found a few locations which justified keeping her on the job.  
  
As she pulled the lever to send her ship into hyperdrive she found herself wondering about Dantooine. She’d been once before, but only briefly. The planet had suffered in the Clone Wars, and was only slowly bringing itself back to the semi-prosperous obscurity it once had. A few more shipments of advanced industrial parts would be lost in the noise, and the damaged infrastructure provided plenty of empty space for individuals interested in privacy. More than that, Mace Windu had fought there, and despite the Jedi Master’s abrasive personality he had a bizarre gift in inspiring loyalty. It would probably be a bust, but she felt a bare minimum of hope. Perhaps it was the force.  
  


* * *

  
Yoda’s lightsaber matched his diminutive frame and color. Despite herself Mara hadn’t been able to suppress a burst of levity when she first saw it. Yoda twitched an ear, and for a moment she felt the gloom that surrounded him lessen.  
  
“Djem So.” Yoda’s blade moved through several slashes and positions she recognized, although with a studied formality that she’d never seen before. “Defense is not enough, its makers felt. That the best way to defend was to attack, they believed.”  
  
He repeated the motions, but faster, the pitch changing as he sped through the sharp motions.  
  
“Favor it you do, but masters you are not.” He accelerated further, his sword nothing but a green blur before he abruptly halted, shutting down his saber. “Were it not for the practice I see I would call you primitive. You only fight each other though.”  
  
Luke answered the rhetorical question. “Vader as well, but our training was abridged.”  
  
“Abridged he says.” Yoda hobbled back to his cane and sat, the grace and power he’d just displayed suddenly absent. “Vader is strong, as are you Skywalker, but that strength is a crutch.” He waved his own at Luke. “Bad habits it covers up, poor technique is masked. Djem So suits you, but your form must be corrected.”  
  
“And what about me?” Yoda gave her a long look from the rock he was perched on, he’d watched them both spar for hours before he gave his judgment.  
  
“That is yet to be seen.” He held out one hand “Your lightsaber?” She removed the hilt from her belt and tossed it to him. A look of pain, and something else flashed across his face as he caught it. “You have made this your own, but it was not made for you.” He ignited it, and the long sapphire blade only barely stopped short of the ground. “Great importance some put in the shape of the hilt, I find it rarely matters.” He retracted the blade, but kept it, staring at it intently. “A more through grounding is needed by each of you. Understand the seven forms, and then you will know where you should go yourself.”  
  
“Great.” Mara tried to keep the exasperation she felt hidden as she took the saber back, but both Luke and Yoda clearly noticed it. She’d learned to fight from experts, and they’d nearly instantly known what techniques best suited her. She’d have thought that the Force and a few hundred years of experience would make that easier, not impossible.  
  
“You have much to learn Mara Jade. There is more to be trained than just your mind and muscles.” He hopped off his rock, and with one hand pulled the chunk of granite from the ground, effortlessly holding a mass that outweighed him ten to one before him in total defiance of mechanics. “What can be seen is not all there is. You must come to trust in the force, not just wield it.”  
  
Yoda set the rock down with a thud that could be felt through the ground, his rebuke and lesson apparently over. He called his saber back to his hand, and ignited it.  
  
“Now watch. Shii-Cho is the first form, and the base for all others. Repeat my motions exactly, even if strange they feel. To progress you both must forget some of what you know.” Luke was already moving in concert with the Jedi Master, and with a sigh, she pulled her own blade and followed.  
  


* * *

  
That night, every muscle sore and aching she went to Luke’s cabin, punching in the override code without bothering to announce herself. He had his shirt off, and was applying a bacta patch to his ribs. She let her eyes linger on the bruise, she couldn’t help but be proud of the blow she’d landed, until he coughed.  
  
“Enjoying the view?”  
  
“Just the color really. Purple suits you.”  
  
“Funny.” He walked to his dresser and pulled out a tunic, black of course. “Any reason you came other than gloating?”  
  
“Do I need another reason?”  
  
“If you’re going to admire your victories I feel like I deserve the same chance.”  
  
“Oh?” Mara couldn’t resist smirking. “You’d have to win one first.”  
  
“I’d have to win one?” He still hadn’t put his shirt on. “I don’t think you’ve won one yet, Jade.”  
  
“Yet you’re the one with bruises, Skywalker.” She took a step closer and tried to poke his ribs, but he caught her hand.  
  
“You sure you want me to try for them?” He didn’t let go, and she didn’t pull away.  
  
“What’s that saying about trying that you’re so fond of?” She slowly looked up and met his eyes, the room suddenly seeming warmer.  
  
“You’ll have to remind me.” If she wasn’t exhausted she’d- the door’s buzzer rang and they both sprang apart, Luke’s tunic seeming to teleport into place.  
  
“One sec!” Luke took the three steps to the door and hit the release, showing Garm on the other side.  
  
He gave them both a look before speaking in a tone that was studiously bland. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”  
  
“Of course not, Mara was just here to discuss-“  
  
“Our next steps.” She smoothly cut in before Luke could flounder. “I was about to track you down too.”  
  
“Great.” The admiral managed to make it seem like he believed them. “I have a few ideas, want to come to the lounge to see them?”  
  
“Of course.” She followed him out, not looking at Luke as she brushed past him. “We do need to have a more thorough discussion.”


	13. XIII

“Should we have Master Yoda here for this?” Garm had led them to the lounge before stopping just short of the entrance. “He was a general after all.”  
  
Luke glanced at Mara, who was unreadable. “We can ask him.”  
  
“What is he doing here anyway? Shouldn’t he be fighting the Empire like you two?” Garm’s intense curiosity wasn’t audible or visible, but in the Force it was painfully obvious.  
  
“He’s tired.” It wasn’t the best defense Luke could muster for the old master, but to a degree he shared the admiral’s thoughts. He was coming to learn that the Jedi’s reluctance to get involved was more justified than Garm could easily understand. As he spent more time with Yoda he could feel the death of the old order echoing around him, constantly reminding Yoda of his failures. It made him wonder if Yoda had still felt the same way when he trained him, and he just hadn’t been capable of perceiving it. “He’s had a long life, and much of what he spent it on is gone.”  
  
“Yet more time I have to spend, I think.” Yoda’s cane tapped along the corridor, and Luke had a hard time seeing him in the Fire. Intellectually he knew that Yoda had once walked with the leaders of the galaxy, but so much of how he saw him was based on their first meeting. To him Yoda was a creature of the swamps and the Force, not the pristine halls of Mara’s starship. He was pretty sure she’d set the cleaning droids on triple rotation, the floors shined so brightly. “Your tactics, about them I have my doubts, yet your goal I must support.”  
  
The Jedi shuffled past them, before taking a footstool as his seat. So much of the galaxy was designed for humanoids that it was still occasionally surprised Luke to see how beings with other shapes fit into it. “Young Mara and I have spoken. Her future, and that of others like her, must be protected. Sidious must be defeated.” For a moment Yoda let them feel his uncertainty, but this time it was shot through with resolve. “Admiral Bel Iblis, years in exile have not improved my manners. I remember your actions guarding the Corellian Run, few could have done as well.”  
  
The compliment put him Garm on the back foot, but he quickly recovered. “Thank you, General Yoda.”  
  
“No need for the title, that one I’ve never desired nor deserved.”  
  
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that, general.” The interplay revitalized him, and the admiral strode to the holoprojector and flipped it on. “I’ve been thinking about this for some time, ever since our little zoological adventure and I think it’s starting to come together.”  
  
Luke didn’t recognize the crest hanging in midair, but from Mara’s snort she clearly did.  
  
“Mandalorians? Seriously?”  
  
Garm shook his head, but he didn’t look surprised by the challenge. “No, even if they weren’t crazy they broke themselves with their constant infighting. Look closer, this is the heraldry of the Neutral Systems.”  
  
“What use will a bunch of pacifists be?”  
  
“They weren’t all pacifists.” Garm switched to a map and highlighted a dense blob of stars. “Some were just opportunistic, and that’s who we need.”   
  
“If the Republic or Separatists couldn’t buy them what chance do we have?” Luke hadn’t been to any of the places Garm had picked out, the Outer Rim was enormous, but there were commonalities among its polities. Without the general prosperity and rule of law of the inner galaxy systems tended to be controlled by a single powerful entity. During the Clone Wars it would have been cheaper and easier to buy the rulers than to subjugate them, but what was cheap for a galactic government was still impossibly beyond their means.  
  
“We’re not getting them, we’re just taking their stuff.” Garm zoomed in to show a small cluster with tactical readouts popping up next to each star. It showed a formidable fleet, except that the icons all indicated the ships were damaged.  
  
“At the start of the war the Separatists had ships to burn as they replaced their fleets. The initial Lucrehulks were just modified freighters, guns and armor bolted onto commercial hulls. They were powerful, but vulnerable thanks to compromises in their designs. Those were rectified, but they still had hundreds of old ones that it didn’t make sense to upgrade. They used them as bribes.”  
  
The map changed again to show a single system with three of the massive ring-shaped ships orbiting an airless planetoid.   
  
“Unfortunately, they weren’t quite enough to persuade the people of Gerson to join up with them, and at that point the Confederacy was still trying to hold the moral high ground. They probably planned to get their revenge at some point, but well, they lost and those battleships have been there ever since.”  
  
“How are we supposed to steal them then? We’re good, but I don’t know if we’re that good.” Mara voiced Luke’s objection. He didn’t doubt that they could destroy the ships, but even heavily automated ones would have hundreds of people on board, any of whom could alert other ships or the Imperial Navy before they could get away.  
  
“Shut down they are. No crews walk their halls.” Yoda didn’t move from his stool, but the hologram changed as he adjusted its focus with the Force. “The Master Control Signal would have still functioned.”  
  
Garm was nodding as he spoke. “Exactly Master Yoda. They’re inert, empty, and entirely intact. No bombs or tripwire forces, just a cash strapped world that’s too proud to scrap or sell the last remnant of their brief relevance.”  
  
“So we board them, boot them up, and just fly away? It will still take hours, maybe even days.” The research they’d done the first time they’d thought about stealing Separatist ships was coming back to him. “They’d have to be pretty blind to not notice that.”  
  
Garm grinned, but it was closer to an apex predator baring its teeth than normal levity. “Or distracted.” The ship vanished, to be replaced by a large compound with neat streets between simple buildings. “Gerson’s economy is primarily driven by its mineral wealth, they mine a wide variety of minerals and ores, but the relevant one is ionite.”  
  
He could almost feel Mara’s sudden understanding. “They’ve got prisoners mining it for them then, that’s a work camp.”  
  
“And the prisoners are mostly former Separatists.” Garm cracked his knuckles as he got to the heart of his plan, clearly enjoying explaining himself. “I hope you two don’t mind a little repetition, but if you bust open that installation I guarantee that no one at all will be watching when we wander off with a few battleships in our pocket.”  
  
Luke gave the camp another look, eying it with the experience of a hundred similar raids. “It could work.”  
  
Mara’s fierce expression was a match for Garm’s. “With the talent for mayhem you’ve got Farmboy? It will.”  
  
“The prisoners, what will you do with them?” Yoda’s questions preempted Luke’s retort.  
  
Garm didn’t hesitate “Leave them. There’s only three of us, we don’t have the resources to help them.”  
  
“Four you shall have.” Yoda seemed to grow, the slump that had been a constant vanished from his shoulders. “The war, part of the fault is mine. Too long have I been content to react and wait. No more.”  
  
Garm couldn’t keep some skepticism from his voice. “Well we’re of course happy to have you, but there’s at least ten thousand in that camp.”  
  
Yoda’s ear twitched in response. “Eight hundred years I have been a Jedi. This prison break is not my first. I shall take care of their escape.”  
  
“How? Ships big enough to carry that many people aren’t easy to find.”  
  
“Regrettably, that is incorrect. In the outer rim there are many ships built only to carry living cargo, and I trust there will be no objection to claiming some for our own purposes.”  
  
Luke couldn’t help but remember what Mara had told him about his father, that he’d hated slavers. “None from me at least.”  
  
Garm accepted the adjustment to the plan with grace. “We’ll need other things too, astromechs first among them. From my math we’ll need at least four days of uninterrupted time on the ships before we’re even ready to start overt preparations. After that we’ll have to kick the reactors on and we’ll need the distraction to be in full effect at that point.”  
  
“Good droids are expensive; how many will we need?” If only they’d had Artoo along, Luke didn’t think it would take his droid four days.  
  
Garm shrugged, for the first time not entirely sure of himself. “Less than a hundred per ship I think.” A flowchart showing the dependencies and work hours needed appeared, but there were more question marks than Luke would like on the timescales. “They’ll be able to activate the Lucrehulk’s own complement eventually, but a lot needs to be done in advance so that we’re ready to get going as soon as possible. I’d like you all to look over the plans, to make sure there’s nothing I missed.”  
  
“We’ll have time, if we’re getting a few hundred droids we’ll need credits.” Mara’s voice was brisk, she was already planning their next steps. “And conveniently there’s a going to be an awful lot of them sitting in a casino vault very soon. I hope you’re all as sick as the damp as I am, because where we’re headed there hasn’t been surface water in two thousand years.”


	14. XIV

Bonadan was disgusting. The cleanest parts of the planet were covered in carcinogenic sand, and the closest thing there was to hydrology was layers of sludge from industrial processing. The only ecological bright spots were the smokestacks of countless factories pumping out clouds of gas. The exhaust was cleaner than the rest of the atmosphere, in a few centuries it was possible that starships wouldn’t need to be covered with an epoxy layer to prevent corrosion.  
  
Despite that there was life on the surface. Beyond the factory workers willing to brave the harsh environments for hazard pay there were prospectors looking for rarely synthesized compounds that were in high temporary demand, secondary miners exploiting the refuse of industry, six legged lizards that had stomach biomes closer too primordial ooze than any form of recognizable digestive system, and beneath them all, the gamblers. It wasn’t the worst place Luke had been.  
  
He was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat as Mara drummed her fingers on the dashboard. They were in line for the passivating spray, droids would establish a temporary nitrogen atmosphere around them and then thoroughly coat the ship with a substance that wouldn’t melt on the way to the surface. They could have left the Fire in orbit and docked at the space elevators, but it was very possible they’d need to make a quick exit from the casino.   
  
“Why are we in the Fire for this again? Why couldn’t we just take a different ship?”  
  
Luke answered the question, even though he knew that she knew the answer. “Because this is the ship that Roas Valist was in when he won entry.”  
  
“Roas Valist is a dumb name.”  
  
“Thanks Mara.” Luke remained somewhat amused by the instant of confusion Mara felt when he addressed her younger self. In the alliance he’d had some friends with common names who were used to strangers apparently talking to them, but that had never happened to Mara. Her face didn’t show it, that would have been trained away for undercover missions, but the spike of attention still lingered. Little Mara wouldn’t have that problem. “What would your fake name be?”  
  
He glanced back to see the focused expression that had once been her normal state as she considered the matter. “Arica.” He raised an eyebrow at the Mara flying who resolutely avoided meeting his gaze. “Arica Cloudshadow.”  
  
“That’s a very pretty name.” He could see Mara’s knuckles whiten on the control stick. “Maybe you should pick our aliases for the next mission.”  
  
“They’re already established.” The acceleration to advance in line was sharper than most pilots would recommend. “Legends take time to grow.”  
  
“You can pick my name.” Luke assured the girl, more to needle Mara than to console her. “It has to be something impressive though.”  
  
There wasn’t an instant of hesitation. “Grell Boltar.” Mara didn’t laugh, but her amusement filled the air. “Grell Chamfa Boltar.”  
  
“I’ll be sure to set it up.” Mara was straight faced as she answered. “Is there anything else special about Grell? Maybe his hair?”  
  
“It’s purple and green, with wire braids. And his eyes are tangerine!” Mara was getting more excited as she continued, and Luke forced himself to keep a smile on his face. “And he only speaks bocce! He needs a translator droid to talk for him, but the droid doesn’t do a good job at all so everyone thinks he’s crazy!”  
  
“I’m not sure Luke can act that well, but luckily everyone already thinks he’s crazy.” Mara slowed the ship as she eased into the atmospheric bubble for the coating. “He does have to dye his hair for this job though, maybe you should go supervise him.”  
  
Luke shook his head as he stood from the controls. “If I’m going multi-colored you’re getting something worse, but I’m not sure there’s anything lower than orange.” He ducked the force launched ball of flimsiplast and shut the door to stifle’s Mara’s reflexive denial. He’d never seen much difference between the shades, the suns tended to bleach them all, but Mara’s antipathy for the color was always entertaining.  
  
Half an hour later he had the black hair of his gambler persona, and while walking back to the cockpit he caught sight of Mara and Yoda in the lounge. The girl was taken with the Jedi master, no doubt because he was the only person her size on board. It was mutual, Luke could tell that Yoda appreciated her presence too. He’d been teaching children for centuries, and the young girl must have seemed to be a bright spot in a darker galaxy.  
  
“A bag.” She had her eyes closed and her faced was screwed into an expression of intense concentration. “A chair? No..”  
  
“Calm, be at peace the answer will come.” Yoda was shielding the two of them, Luke couldn’t feel a thing, but he’d known the Jedi long enough that he could hear happiness. “Don’t try to seize it, when you need it you will know.”  
  
He left the two of them behind as he went back to the cockpit. Mara was a perfectionist, she’d want to go over every step of the plan at least twice more before they landed.  
  


* * *

  
Clearing customs was the first obstacle. The Bonadanian government nominally banned weapons on the surface, correctly realizing that the volatile personalities who lived there would be more inclined to settle their disagreements with force. Naturally there were blasters anyway, legal ones with exorbitant license fees, freshly machined ones from obscure corners of factories, and ones that either slipped through or had always been there. Despite that the spaceport security was very thorough in their inspection.

If they’d been the sort of gamblers who actually paid for a spot at the table they’d have been whisked through without questions, but as mere prizewinners they didn’t merit red carpet treatment. The trunsk security guard was carefully going through Mara’s third bag, the first two had been clothing, but the garments in this one barely deserved the name. He was able to suppress a blush with the force, but he could feel the prurient interest of every male within range. They were all looking from the bag to Mara with speculation. 

The plan had been hers, to hide their tools and weapons along with things the guards would be too embarrassed or distracted to ask about. He’d agreed but now standing in the middle of the customs port as the tusked alien dug through the luggage he’d wished he’d come up with something different.

“Welcome to Bonadan, Valist.” His eyes went back to Mara. “Have a good time.”

Luke managed to nod and hand over the tip that the inspector expected, but he was more than happy to leave the chamber as droids took their gear. He should have known not to relax as they followed the porters into a surface train.

“Why Roas, it’s like you’ve never seen those before.” Mara was enjoying herself, even though her voice didn’t vary from her persona. “Surely a man of the galaxy like yourself-“ She was cut off as their tramcar accelerated, bursting into the open air and roaring winds. It was deafening until shields came up a split second later, quieting the gale and giving them a chance to stand and look out across the sand blasted and poisoned surface.

“Welcome to Bonadan!” The cheery voice from the speakers was as far removed from the scenery as it was possible to imagine. “We’re the three-time winner of Industrial Quarterly Digest’s Best Regulatory Environment poll, and have twice been mentioned in Corporate Sector Living! We hope you enjoy your stay and remember to take our complimentary data packet of the most recent mineral assays!”

Mara raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that Mr. Valist is really interested in  _assays_?”

“We’re happy to supply all interested customers with whatever they need to help them choose Bonadan!” Anyone less well trained than Mara would have blanched as the speaker, apparently not a prerecorded clip, responded. “I see that you’re here for the annual Carborundom Classic, naturally companionship is complimentary. Any interest Mr. Valist?”

Luke looked from the speaker to see Mara’s glare. “I think I’m fine, thanks.”

“Very well, but if you change your mind the staff is  _extremely_  willing to assist!”

This time they waited for the slight noise of the open line to end before talking. “Charming place.”

“We could be on Bespin right now instead.”

“I think I could handle that.” Mara groaned and turned to the window while Luke smirked. If Rogue Squadron had been good for anything it had made him appreciate the little things, like running water, good alcohol, and bad jokes. He felt he had to spread the wisdom, it might be the one path to enlightenment that everyone could agree on.

“Agree on banning you mean.” Mara didn’t seem to realize what she’d done, and he didn’t tell her. “And stop feeling so pleased with yourself.”

* * *

  
Their room was opulent, far beyond the one on the Placida, and Luke took one of the scanners to help check for bugs. They worked in silence until they’d disabled the four obvious and thirteen cleverly hidden ones, he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a standard rate for eavesdropping. Even Mara looked somewhat impressed by the accommodations, and her time in the Imperial Palace had made her something of a snob.

“Just because I appreciate the finer things-“ This time she noticed, and for once her emotions reached her face as they rapidly changed. “How long have I been doing that?”

He didn’t play dumb. “Since before the swamp.”

Her face went to an impassive mask, and her shields hardened around her mind, cutting off the normal slight awareness he couldn’t help but feel. “Don’t view it as an invitation to reciprocate.”

“Never.”

“Good.” Her tone returned to normal, but the shields remained. “Now we don’t have a lot of time before the opening cocktail party, and I want you to go over the spike installation procedure once again.”

“I have sliced one or two systems before.”

“You?” Mara grabbed one of her suitcases and walked into the bathroom, calling back as she vanished. “Or Artoo?”

“Not all of my successes are due to an astromech.”

“Just the big ones.” He could hear the shower startup and wished he’d moved faster, he doubted the guest suite had one that was half as nice. “If we had him instead of you I’m sure the Empire would already have fallen.” She’d raised her voice over the sound of the water. “Go study and then come in here when you can recite the instructions verbatim.” He rolled his eyes and picked up his own bag, before taking one of the spikes out of Mara’s doing his best not to think about the items it was concealed with.

Fifteen minutes later, dressed in the finest intentionally dated fashion and with an almost anachronistically advanced computer spike concealed against his forearm he returned to find Mara finishing her makeup. “I see why you’re not holding the spike.”

“If I had to I could, my dress has room for it.”

“It barely has room for you.”

She looked over, put down the brush, and a knife seemed to appear in her hand before vanishing once again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear the compliment.”

“You look lovely.”

“Thank you.” She picked her mascara applier back up, somewhat mollified.

“Even your orange hair-“ This time he had to catch the knife, although she didn’t throw it very hard.

She gave herself one last inspection in the mirror before checking him and adjusting his jacket’s hang. “If you’re done practicing farmboy comedy, it’s time to go. Roas Valist isn’t rich enough to be fashionably late.”

He managed to get ahead of her on the way to the door, waiting to push it open until she was close. “If you say so Ms. Cloudshadow.” The open door prevented her from responding, and as she swept out he couldn’t keep a grin off his face. They were about to rob a casino patronized by the richest beings of the sector, and with Mara he was looking forward to it.


	15. XV

At the opening party Luke meandered through the crowds of the idle rich with Mara at his side and a drink in his hand. It was bizarre how normal he felt. The trays the h'ordeuvres were carried on cost as much as his first speeder, and the jewelry worn would have bought all of Anchorhead. This was closer to the sort of thing Leia enjoyed, her childhood as royalty and adulthood as a major figure in the Republic had made her comfortable with those who walked the halls of power. Mara’s time in Palpatine’s court had left her with similar experience, even more so as he could feel her amusement at how hard the casino was trying. For Luke a party was a group of friends drinking, watching a race or just celebrating being alive. The thought that some people truly enjoyed the stilted formality and rigid etiquette was utterly alien, despite the fact Luke had been dragged to enough that he was halfway comfortable. 

He could see some people visibly uneasy though, most of them the others who’d won their way in. This was their first exposure to the kind of money that the galactic rich commanded, and it was intimidating. Despite the wealth of Bonadan the tournament was organized normally enough. There were sixteen tables, each with eight players. Once half the players at a table were eliminated the remainder were shuffled into the next round. There’d be five rounds overall, until finally the best or luckiest of the one-hundred-twenty-eight gamblers walked away with the prize. Theoretically the winner would leave with over two hundred million credits, with the final table’s players also being richly rewarded. Theories only went so far.

He let Mara take the lead as they circled, they’d downloaded plans of the resort but large events changed traffic patterns and security’s attention. She was in charge of assessing where they’d hack into the systems, checking all the identified weak points. The spike on his forearm was cold, the metal wicking away heat. That combined with his skeletal artificial hand left his left arm, the one holding Mara, feeling much warmer. 

“Roas, can we go up there?” Mara’s simpering made him drop the chain of thought. “The tornados will be much much better with a little elevation.”

There was also an access point to the network, labeled as multimedia station three. Considering the band was occupying a small section of the ground floor the upper level seemed likely to be vacant. He grabbed another glass as they headed for the stairs, Roas Valist had a slight drinking problem. As they ascended Luke looked over the ballroom. It was a vast atrium, with a trasparisteel dome arching over it. The balcony they were climbing to ringed the lower level, allowing people to look down on the dancing or out to the nearly constant storms.

The tornados Mara had mentioned were there, and very much worth watching. Some factory was emitting something extremely volatile and it only took the slightest spark for it to ignite into an eerie turquoise flame. The resultant vortex would linger for hours, constantly fed by the smokestacks and leaving a trail of glowing ash beneath it as it traced a path across the barren earth. Only when the shifts changed and the systems were briefly shut down for maintenance would the fires go out, to resume as soon as the work restarted and the lightning struck. 

The balcony was deserted, but Mara didn’t let her acting lapse as she strolled aimlessly in the opposite direction of their target. He joined her at the railing, looking over the crowd below and the slowly filling dance floor. Couples, and in a few cases larger sets, spun gracefully across the expanse. Mara’s face was blank and the force gave no clue to her emotions, but her fingers drummed in time with the music. He didn’t say anything as she stared, and he couldn’t say how long the moment lasted before she shook herself and the familiar focus returned to her presence.

“Let’s take a lap.” She snagged Luke’s still full glass and took a long sip, her lips glistening with the alcohol. Mara pressed it back into his hand before dragging him along the balcony. “This isn’t a balcony by the way, it’s a mezzanine.”

“What’s the difference?” Mara’s education was somewhat eclectic, she was a constant font of trivia.

“Balconies go out, at least in classical architecture. There might be some confluence of the terms if you go to sufficiently backwards places.”

“Obviously I never do that.”

“Of course you don’t Roas,” Mara glanced at the nails on her free hand. “My manicurist already has enough to deal with without swamps and sand.”

“Your comfort is my single highest priority.”

“As it should be. Now be quiet, I want to enjoy the view.” Somehow they’d made their way to the network interface. It was concealed behind an incredibly ugly plant that the plaque said was the last example of Bonadan’s native flora. Luke maneuvered himself to block what Mara was doing with the computer spike and datapad from casual observation, and found himself studying the yellowish tuber. If that was what the plants had looked like he could see why no one had minded when the surface got turned into a toxic slurry. 

Mara’s fingers were flashing as she sliced into the system, enough of Ghent’s exploits still worked that she was able to mimic his incredible skill. Door locks, cameras, atmospheric sensors, window tinting, and even room service were linked into one system that she now had top level access to.

“Wait, what’s that there?” He’d seen a line flicker past as she scrolled and he reached around her to point it out.

In his arms Mara gave out a put-upon sigh as she was interrupted, but the annoyance quickly gave way to interest.

She pulled up the program, and on the tiny screen the order of every sabacc deck in the casino appeared. There were options to change the next hand dealt, what to randomize a player’s cards to, and even to surreptitiously alter the value of the chips in a player’s stack. “Naughty naughty.”

“I wonder how often they use this.” Expert gamblers would track their play closely enough that too much fiddling by the house would emerge, but sometimes it would only take one hand. 

“Even if it’s just once and we get proof…”

Luke couldn’t help but grin. “They might just give us what’s in the vault.”

“You’re thinking too small Roas. There’s casinos like this across the sector, all owned by the same company. They’ve all got vaults.”

* * *

  
“Admiral.”

“General.”

The audio only message was bouncing through more relays than Garm thought was strictly necessary, but he couldn’t disapprove of Mara’s caution. The audio quality was reduced even before the vocal scrambler, but if they were unlucky enough to be caught up in a sweep it would be impossible to narrow down their location. 

“Your agents promised intelligence when we met.” The Twi’lek was blunt to the point of rudeness.

“What are you looking for?” Yoda was sitting across from him, listening in silence.

“Schematics, detailed plans of Imperial class destroyers.”

“We can supply that.” Luke and Mara had somehow acquired plans for a huge variety of Imperial equipment, including some scarily advanced designs that he hoped were a long way from production. They’d mentioned that they’d spent some time in the Ubiqtorate headquarters, at this point he was assuming some time meant weeks.

“Excellent. How do you intend to transfer the data?”

Yoda muted the transmission before Garm could respond. “Take it I shall. A ship that will suit my purposes will be easily found near Ryloth.”

“What planet should I say? Dient is the only one close by that comes to mind.” When he was younger and more foolish he’d spent months pining after a girl from there, he hadn’t thought of the planet in decades. 

“Dient then.” Yoda accepted the suggestion without argument or even hesitation. He didn’t understand how the Jedi could accept random chance so easily, but both Luke and Yoda shared an almost reckless serenity at times. He unmuted the call, hoping that Syndulla wasn’t too paranoid to accept a few secrets.

“I’ll dispatch a courier to Dient. When they get there, I’ll send a comm frequency and the transfer can be arranged in detail on the planet without risking galactic transmissions.”

“When?” If the revolutionary had any doubts or complaints he didn’t voice them.

Yoda closed his eyes, was motionless for a moment then held up three fingers, and another two. “They’ll be on Dient in five standard days.”

“My men will be ready.” The transmission abruptly ended, and Garm leaned back into his chair, resisting the urge to sigh.

“Do you think it’s wise to go gallivanting across the galaxy?”

“Wise? Perhaps not, but my wisdom,” Yoda shrugged, and the gesture seemed uncharacteristic to the ancient being. “I remember Cham Syndulla. Ryloth he values above all else. Aiding him now may cause his concern to broaden, and a ship I do need.”

That brought up a different concern, one so basic that Garm cursed himself for missing it at all. “How are you even getting there? The Fire has to stay here and everything else we have can’t come through the atmosphere if we can even get it in orbit.”

“My problem that will be, but the force will provide.” There really wasn’t anything to say to that, so Garm just nodded dumbly as Yoda hopped off his stool looking at least a century younger. He still used his cane though, eight hundred was awfully old for any species.


	16. XVI

Negative nineteen was Luke’s favorite sabacc hand. In all the thousands of games he’d played he’d never lost with it. As he flipped over his cards he knew that he hadn’t this time either.  
  
“Mr. Valist wins.” The croupier’s announcement was mostly met with polite indifference from the spectators, and a few credit chips changing hands. “The four of you remaining will receive your placements in the next round based on your stack size.”  
  
Luke had to suppress a grimace at that. Of the players remaining he had the least by far. He was pretty sure one of the other gamblers, a massive alien of some unknown species, had decided that he was the worst player and had gone easy on him in favor of focusing on the other players. He wasn’t sure if that was a good idea, but the speed of the alien’s flickering thoughts made him inclined to think the being knew what it was doing.  
  
He stood from the table, stretching and looking for Mara. She had watched for the first two hours, but then had pretended to whisper something in his ear, pecked him on the cheek, and vanished. He’d won the next three hands in a surge of good feelings before the game returned to a slog.  
  
She wasn’t anywhere visible, but he’d long grown used to not being able to look over a crowd. It seemed unfair that he hadn’t inherited his father’s height, but it was possible that Anakin Skywalker was just as short as him and Vader relied on his prosthetics for his height. Maybe he’d ask, although it might not be wise to further enrage a Sith Lord while fighting him.   
  
He couldn’t feel her presence, but they’d both refined their shields through necessity. Exiting the casino floor he took a moment to enjoy the cooler air, as well as the lack of other minds. The room was filled with gamblers intently focused on their cards, the pressure of their thoughts reminded him of the air before a storm.  
  
Walking towards their suite through the empty corridors he forced himself to review their next steps. He’d made it into the second round, but his performance in the tournament was superfluous to the plan. It was good for the Valist cover identity, but even if he could win he’d want to be out well before the finish. His absence in the crowd on the last day would be noticed, meaning that they now only had at most two full days to rob the vault.   
  
The casino would try to coverup the robbery Mara had thought, and Luke agreed. Investigators wouldn’t be able to swarm the scene of the crime without being noticed, which meant that by the time anything was forensically discovered everyone in the tournament would have left. Roas Valist flying out the morning after the last round would be lost in the shuffle, just another loser among many.   
  
He reached their room, and after a moment of fumbling he pulled out his key. Like everything else on the planet it was needlessly ostentatious, locks didn’t get harder to pick just because their tumblers were lifted by diamond teeth. Mara wasn’t visible from the entrance, but he could hear music playing softly from one of the bedrooms. Mara was in it, three datapads scattered on the bed around her.   
  
“Nice work, but that Baragwin was toying with you.” She didn’t look up as she greeted him, only continuing to type one handed. “It’s good that you don’t need to win, because I don’t think you could.”  
  
“Was he the big one? The hunchback looking thing?” Luke moved to the bed and picked up the datapad furthest from Mara. It had the casino layout displayed, but more than that it had the locations of every guest, updating every thirty or forty seconds. He sat down as he studied it, not enjoying the implications. “How are they doing this? The keys?”  
  
“Yeah, I put mine in a shielded bag and I vanished.”  
  
“That might be a bit obvious. I’d prefer to be accounted for so we’re not immediate suspects.”  
  
“Agreed. Luckily the builders were confident enough in their tracking system that they skimped out on cameras. As long as they know where the key is they’re confident they know where the guest is.” Luke raised an eyebrow, that seemed almost impossibly naïve. “They also have a counter that tracks when people cross through doorways, if the numbers get out of sync with the keys present inside it flags them.”  
  
“Does that happen often?”  
  
Mara took a sip from her drink before she nodded and answered. “Pretty frequently, but a server gets sent to check it out if the system reports it for more than ten minutes or so.” That wasn’t much time for larceny.  
  
“How does it monitor people going through the doors?” The force was the key to a lot of locks, and there were few enough users in the galaxy that it was rarely planned for.  
  
“Infrared beams, tight enough that that you’d have to lose some weight to get through.” She rattled the answer off, not consulting her notes.  
  
“Some?”  
  
Mara made a slashing motion along her face with her free hand. “Everything behind your nose. There’s only centimeters between them.”  
  
“That seems like a little much.”  
  
“True.”  
  
“Can we slice it?”  
  
“Security is all isolated, they decided that a bunch of people watching individual readouts was cheaper than the expected cost of a robbery.”  
  
That sounded like the most boring job in the galaxy, even with Luke’s experience with one of the other contenders for the title. “So, you’re saying that there’s no way to move around incognito undetected?”  
  
“The system is too tight.”  
  
“It’s impossible then?”  
  
“Clearly.”  
  
“You have a plan?”  
  
“Of course.”  
  
“Want to share?”  
  
Mara’s face lit up, she was proud of her idea, whatever it was. “The security system assumes everyone stays inside.”  
  
“They think we’ll stay inside,” Luke waited a second for the rest, but Mara just nodded. “Inside, as in away from the acid rain, the three hundred kilometers an hour winds, the razor sand, and the unforgettable flame tornadoes?”  
  
“Exactly. Once you’re outside there’s only ten centimeters of durasteel between you and the contents of the vault.” She took another sip from her drink, looking triumphant.  
  
“I might have grown up in a pretty harsh environment compared to a pampered city girl like you,” she only rolled her eyes, “but despite that I generally have a rough time with getting sprayed by acid and flayed with sand.”  
  
“Do you have to?” With a sudden motion she tossed her glass in the air, the neon blue drink spraying everywhere, before with an effort of will she caught the scattered droplets. The glass fell and shattered, but even as Mara’s face twisted with concentration the individual drops smoothly came back together into a single coherent bubble.  
  
Luke was impressed enough that he couldn’t be annoyed when she flung it at him, splashing him with the freezing alcohol. If Mara had looked triumphant before she was radiant now. “So, what do you think? Can you do it?”  
  
Luke stood, taking off and throwing his sodden jacket down on the bed. He walked towards the window where only a dampening field prevented the roaring wind from being audible. He put his flesh hand against the transparisteel, pressing hard against the cold window before he stretched out with the force.  
  
Mara was close behind him, he could feel her warmth as she whispered into his ear. “It doesn’t matter if there’s one grain or a million,” her hand found its way to his against the transparisteel and for a second her shields faltered. “just reach out.”  
  
He could feel the wind, the patterns in the chaos and through them all the force. Now that he looked there was beauty in the danger. Sand and rain flew in dizzying arcs, swirling, and dancing in the air. Despite the complexity and their numbers he’d moved far more than the specks of matter, of course he could stop them. He summoned the force, and with the barest effort tightened his grip.  
  
It worked as he knew it would, for meters before them the air was still and the sand trapped. Outside the zone of his control the wind and debris hammered against his shield- unable to pass the bulwark of the force- but inside it was calm and obedient to his will.  
  
“No,” Mara pressed on his hand, and he was startled enough that he lost his grip for a second. “Not like that.” He tried to regain his concentration, but before he could he felt her presence in the storm. “You don’t always need to work so hard.” Luke relaxed as she leaned on him, and simply felt what she was doing.  
  
It wasn’t the wall he’d made, the changes he’d demanded with his own strength, but something subtler. She only had the lightest touch on the wind, but it was enough as a small opening slowly formed. Its edges were soft, not as sharply defined as he’d managed but despite that it would be safe. He could feel her beginning to falter, the concentration needed more than she could easily muster, but with a thought he joined her, and for the first time since they’d been on Bonadan the wind stopped howling.  
  
For almost a minute they held the channeled the storm, flicking the tendrils of air into different streams, but with a sudden gasp Mara let go of both him and the force. He twisted, worried he’d have to catch her, but she recovered before he had to. She grinned despite her sudden pallor and the cacophony of the resurgent winds. “So outside?”  
  
His expression matched hers as he nodded. “Outside.”  
  


* * *

  
The three of them stood outside the turbolift as the little green alien patiently waited inside. Tysa and Beren were holding hands, and unlike before the sight didn’t bother Arec. “You two are going to get all the public displays of affection out of your systems before I get back right?”  
  
Beren grinned and tried to pull a squawking Tysa closer as she jokingly shoved him. “We’ll see.”  
  
Arec shook his head as he stepped into the lift. “I’m pretty sure after eight days everyone else will be just as sick of it as I am already.”  
  
The closing doors cut off any rejoinder from his friends, and the rapid acceleration of the car left any shouts far behind. He looked down at the being that had joined his friends for the best and strangest night of their lives. “Not that I mind, we all owe you more than we can easily repay now, but why do you need to get to Dient?”  
  
The alien, he’d said his name was Adoy but Arec wasn't entirely convinced, just twitched an ear. “Sometimes a change is needed.”  
  
Arec could only nod, if nothing else their night’s adventure had made that clear. “Anyone ever tell you that you should try being a life coach? I think you’d be good at it.”


	17. XVII

Luke didn’t look like he was having much fun as Mara left him behind. He claimed to be patient, and to an extent he was, but that patience was always in service to a larger goal. Past that he was competitive, and intentionally slowly losing had to burn. If he’d had his way he would have purposely misread a bluff and gotten knocked out quickly, but Roas Valist wouldn’t do that so neither could he. Luckily, she wasn’t glued to his side, after all the practicing he’d done to prepare she’d be happy to never see a sabacc deck again.   
  
She needed a few things from the Fire to prepare for their upcoming excursion, and it would be a relief to go somewhere she was sure was free of surveillance. She also wanted to check on little Mara, if anything serious had happened Garm would have called, but she liked to be sure.   
  
Leaving the resort to the spaceport was simple, the tram car was blessedly silent, and customs didn’t particularly care what was taken from the planet. Fifteen digits and a whine of hydraulics later she was back home, and immediately she could feel the difference. She stalked towards the lounge where she found Bel Iblis reading a datapad with a blaster rifle on the seat next to him.  
  
“Where’s Yoda?”  
  
He shrugged, in the practiced way all Corellians with overdeveloped egos did. She didn’t resist the urge to roll her eyes. “We got a message from Cham Syndulla, he wanted schematics for Star Destroyers, Yoda volunteered to take them, and he said he’d handle his own transportation.”  
  
Dumping her emotions into the force had gotten easier with Yoda’s tips, but sharing them was much more satisfying. “You didn’t think that was worth mentioning to us?”  
  
“Not enough to break comm silence considering none of us are supposed to be here.” He jerked his head to show that they’d been joined by her younger self. “Besides, all the cutouts in the galaxy aren’t a guarantee and Yoda is certainly a primary target.”  
  
Mara stamped down her irration, it was too late to change the Jedi Master’s actions and the admiral’s enabling. “Where’s he going? Not straight to Ryloth, right?”  
  
“Dient.” Mara had never heard of the place, so Garm elaborated. “A little planet close by it. Not too notable.” Apparently.  
  
“How are they linking up?”  
  
“I’m waiting for Master Yoda to contact me, I’ll set up a comm chain and pass the contact information to Ryloth. They don’t learn his direct frequency, his name, nothing.” The answer was smooth, he’d been thinking about it which made Mara feel a little better about being out of the loop.  
  
“And they’ll go for that?”  
  
“They didn’t object, and even if they did this can’t be a one way street.”  
  
“True enough.” It would only help their reputation, although if all went well their fleet would do that better. More than that it would accelerate the gradual coalescing of the Rebel Alliance, the Twi’leks would be even more aware there were others fighting.   
  
“How are things going in the casino?” Garm was onboard with the goal, he knew they needed money, but it was obvious he’d have preferred something a little more dignified.   
  
“Luke should be losing right about now, and we’ve identified a way into and out of the vault that the security system doesn’t cover.”  
  
“You sliced their systems that easily?” Apparently it was still possible to impress the Admiral, he’d been remarkably unflappable when they’d discussed the more overt options the force gave them.  
  
Mara shrugged, more than willing to take the credit for Ghent’s future brilliance. “Whoever set them up made a few more mistakes than they should have. If all goes well this group of resorts will be a source of income for a long time.”  
  
“Not of similar scale to the vault though?” It clearly wasn’t what he’d wanted to say, white collar crime apparently didn’t offend him as much as grand larceny. He was a smart man though, and thought that they wouldn’t be pursuing a riskier option just for the sake of excitement. In that he was mistaken, even if not in this particular instance.  
  
“Trickles versus an ocean.” From working with Karrde Mara was confident that the casinos would pay them a few million credits a year to stay quiet about the cheating system, but the vault had orders of magnitude more.  
  
He nodded in response, mollified. “When are you going to do it?”  
  
“Tomorrow or the day after, we want the weather to be right.” She couldn’t resist a smirk at his horrified expression. “We’ll need a storm.”  
  
After horrifying the admiral Mara headed for the hold, her younger self trotting at her heels.  
  
“Have you been good?” There wasn’t an immediate verbal response, but Mara could feel turmoil. “Not completely then?”  
  
“Bel Iblis treats me like a baby.” As far as Mara was aware that was a fairly common complaint for toddlers. She knew herself well enough that she wouldn’t accept that explanation.  
  
“He’s not aware of everything you’ve been through.” It was hard to think back to those days, when everything had been pure and simple. The Emperor had driven her forward, constantly pushing her to her limits and beyond, yet she’d thrived. He hadn’t had the time to do the same in this galaxy, but he’d started it. The impact on the girl was fading, Luke had blocked the will and power of the Emperor and she’d almost immediately lost her apparently uncanny maturity, but parts remained. They’d linger, there were still remnants from her time in his service, and she’d had years and the man’s death to erode them.  
  
Mara couldn’t regret that the girl with her wouldn’t have the same training, the same dedication, but without them she wouldn’t have been Mara Jade. It was for the best though; the galaxy didn’t need another.  
  
During the burst of externalized self-absorption they’d reached the hold and she punched in the access code. It had once been the password to her dorm in the palace, but she’d had to change it to something no one else would already know. Eight digits was easy enough, and the nice thing about a new galaxy was that she could use significant dates and times without anyone else being able to guess them from simple research.  
  
She still wasn’t used to how the chamber looked. Luke had helped move all the crates to the edge to make room for their sparring, before it had been neatly laid out with everything she needed easily accessible. Now she had to look up what container equipment was stowed in, as well as get a jack to remove it from the wall. Or did she?  
  
Yoda had been teaching little Mara tricks with the force, methods to enhance the memory and ways to quickly pick up new skills. She and Luke had been none too subtly watching, neither of their training had really covered the less martial aspects of the force, and they both appreciated useful things. Mara took a deep breath and threw her mind back.  
  
Of course she knew where the breath masks had been, neatly packed with the other survival equipment. Luke had moved that crate, showing off with the force, no trying to distract a scared little girl trying her hardest to go back home, and he’d put it midway up the third column- there. Part of her wanted to check the inventory to be sure, but she didn’t need to. The certainty was odd, the feeling was one she’d only ever linked with the physical and associating it with a truth was like tasting a color.   
  
Mara considered using the force to get the box down, but the jack was more practical. It would record what crate she pulled as well as where she put it, something that made keeping track of her possessions much easier. It had been one of the first things she purchased with the ship, neatness made life far easier. Some smugglers preferred to keep shoddy records in the hope that inspectors wouldn’t be able to find what they were looking for in the clutter, Karrde wasn’t one of them. The best place to hide something was right where it was supposed to be, hidden in plain sight with exhaustive records proving that it wasn’t what it was.   
  
Sure enough the breath masks were present, still in their original packaging with test kits lying next to them. The process of checking them out was mechanical, gas had been a regular tool in the imperial arsenal, and she listed off the steps to her audience.  
  
“Check the seals, make sure that it fits closely to your face.” That was easier for her than most, agents with beards or sideburns had to be careful that their hair didn’t get in the way. “This one hasn’t been used so it’s clean, but usually you want to rinse it off to ensure that nothing harmful is on it.” The mask swallowed the little girl’s head, her eyes weren’t visible behind the mouthpiece. “Then you check the lenses, make sure that they’re clean and that the heads-up display and night vision functions.”  
  
A few taps brought up the menu and out of habit she turned off the blaster interface. The company that made them probably thought showing ammunition count and providing a virtual sight was a great idea, and for some it would be, but Stormtroopers would be able to piggyback off the signal and see it too. Once it might not have mattered, but now the people with the best ECM weren’t on her side.   
  
Little Mara was entranced with the night vision, peering around the hold with a faint green glow visible around the edge of the mask. Mara let her play as she pulled a filter at random and plugged it in the test kit. She’d bought them when she got the ship and they were rated for decades but doing an actual check was the only sane way to use them. The machine buzzed as it pumped chemicals into the cylinder, an impressively wide variety of them. They shouldn’t encounter any of the more exotic threats the mask was made for, the atmosphere was nasty in only a pedestrian way, but there were no guarantees for next time. At last the machine binged, as expected the filters were fine. She grabbed a handful and one mask, before towing a still enraptured Mara behind her with the other.   
  
Her room was the next stop, she grabbed a duffle bag, tossed her stuff in and then looked around for something to conceal it with. Last time their equipment had been hidden with her lingerie, a lot of minds shut down with even the slightest hint of the prurient, but Mara really didn’t want to be thought of as someone who used gasmasks in the bedroom.   
  
Perhaps the solution was simpler, she’d just been thinking of how Karrde hid things in plain sight. Bringing in a box with the survival necessities, water, food, emergency tent, a high powered comm, and gas masks would be seen as paranoia, not an attempt to smuggle in contraband. Even better the next time Roas Valist made an appearance they’d already have an excuse for having a wide variety of necessities at hand. This would work. She flipped off the lights behind her as she returned to the hold, Mara’s sudden joy with the working night vision was brighter than them by far.


	18. XVIII

The resort had a large library, something that didn’t really seem to fit with the rest of it, but Luke wasn’t complaining. Among the stacks of mineralogical surveys and space lane analyses Luke and Mara had ensconced themselves in an area free from surveillance. The next step was simpler, with Mara’s help he spun a shelf to block off the corridor formed between the rows of data-tapes. It wouldn’t pass a detailed inspection, but from the marks in the carpet and the dust the only things that ever came this far were outdated cleaning droids.   
  
The privacy was nice, but the library’s location was the important part. Its walls directly abutted external passageways that would let them get outside. The tunnels were shielded from the wind and rain, meaning that a simple polymer patch would prevent any gas exchange that the life support systems would detect. Once they’d cut through the wall they’d only be a short walk from the vault and the riches inside of it.  
  
His lightsaber leapt to his hand, its weight and solidity reassuring after it had spent the last days disassembled and masquerading as jewelry. Mara had the patch applier ready, at her nod he ignited the blade and carefully carved a beveled circle from the duracrete. With the force he caught the block and carefully lowered it as Mara stepped past and quickly sealed the opening.   
  
“Remember the plan?” She just glared in response to the question, and Luke hid a grin by rummaging through his duffle bag. The clothes they were wearing would be bleached by the atmosphere, even blocking the acid rain there was still enough suffused through the air to cause damage. To prevent that they were wearing chemical resistant coveralls, and the crime against fashion the shapeless garments represented offended Mara to an almost ludicrous degree.  
  
He still watched her shimmy into them, before tossing her a gas mask. His own went on easily, the hood sealed to the collar of the coverall as the diagnostics blinked green, but Mara took a little longer getting her hair out of the way. Strapping on a belt holding his saber and a ruggedized datapad he stretched and waited, he was ready.  
  
“Get the bag.” He rolled his eyes at the command as he followed Mara through the hole, and started walking ahead as she resealed it behind them.   
  
The tunnels were pitch black, the gas mask’s night vision systems automatically engaged, but he didn’t need to see. Even without the force it would have been simple to navigate them, the ground was smoothed perfectly flat and he could tell which way he was going from the constant breeze. Neither of them spoke as they navigated the shafts, the sound of their footsteps the only noise other than the constantly increasing roar of the wind. Mara had quickly come to his side, she was too competitive to follow when she didn’t have to, but she kept pace as he slowed down.   
  
They were close to the surface, the caves were lit with a reflected sulfurous light and the bags over his shoulders flapped in the ever stronger wind. He closed his eyes and let the outside world fade away. The mask’s tightness, the bursts of searing air, his saber at his hip, he let it all go until the only thing left was the Force, and beside him Mara.   
  
He opened his eyes, and went forward. It wasn’t his typical walk, the careful steps trained on the dunes of his homeworld, nor the implacable stride he’d modeled on his father in battle, but something more graceful.   
  
Each step was perfect, carrying him into the open air, yet somehow the gusts missed him. All around them the ground was scoured with sand and rinsed in steaming acid, but Mara and he were unscathed. Vortexes of the superheated gasses spun past, but only served to clear the way, as each step found firm footing on bedrock. It wasn’t like flying with the Rogues, channeling the force to speed his reflexes and feel glimpses of what might be, skating on the edge of annihilation as he raced through the stars, but something more serene. Surrounded by burning rain and destruction he felt the stillness that Master Yoda had always tried to teach, that he’d never found easy to grasp. The closest thing he found to compare it to was sparring with Mara, when both were submerged in the force and their moves had more in common with dancing than the brutality of combat.  
  
It was only a few hundred meters of ground to the exterior of the vault, but it passed in what was simultaneously an eternity and the blink of an eye. He released Mara’s hand when they got there, he hadn’t realized he’d taken it, and focused on keeping them safe from Bonadan’s harsh skies. It was both easier and harder to be stationary and shielded, before they could simply dodge the dense parts of the storm, but now he had to channel all of them away. He’d gotten the hang of it though, and when Mara tapped him on the shoulder to let him know they were in he was almost disappointed.  
  
It wasn’t enough for him to not quickly duck through the hole she’d cut and let out a breath of relief when he no longer had block the constant assault.  
  
He took a moment to look around once he was in. Mara had cut a plug from the wall with her saber, and on the inside she’d installed a portable shield to keep out the atmosphere. The only light in the vault was from the round opening, Bonadan’s yellow dying everything a sickly ochre. It wasn’t an especially large room, perhaps fifteen meters square with a low ceiling. One of the resort’s buttresses cut through it, the thick durasteel rising from the floor on its journey to support the central dome. The vault’s entrance was just as massive, the door was a meter of solid steel with magnetic sealing as well as ray shields. He could see the generators and feel their hum from their positions beside the door. Anyone coming in the way the builders planned would have a rough time, even ignoring the security systems they’d have to overcome to even reach the entrace.  
  
“You’re alright?” Mara was already sorting through the vault’s contents as she asked, rearranging the items so that they be able to get the most value in their limited volume.   
  
“Never better.” She looked up at his comment, and he felt a spike of worry before she rapidly suppressed it. “Credits first as planned?”  
  
“Yeah, they need to have enough on hand to payout all winners.” She waved a hand at a row of cases. “Dump those in yours, I’ll see if there’s anything else.”  
  
The credit chips rattled as he dumped them in the bag, occasionally the force would twinge and he’ll pull a doctored one with a tracker emplaced. Those he left in a neat pile, he had a half developed plan to shuffle them in with the others in the hope it would be harder to discover the theft, but he’d leave it up to Mara.  
  
She was sorting through jewelry, popping gems from settings. Clearly she trusted her own judgement on monetary value more than his, she’d gone for treasure as opposed to the simple cash she’d steered him for. Her bag was loaded with poster tubes, a statue of a small man smiling carved entirely from Corusca gems, and most oddly a small plant inside a terrarium.  
  
“Get back to work, we want that bag stuffed full.” He could hear the smile in her reproach. “We need to get back into the security system as quickly as possible, if they establish our alibi we won’t have to worry about running.” He complied, but the high value chips were mostly already loaded. He gave the bag a speculative lift, it was heavy but not enough to really trouble him. Nonetheless he kept pouring in the chips, as they grew less valuable the frequency of the trackers decreased. At last the bag was entirely full, he carefully zipped it and engaged the seal, they didn’t want to get a face full of toxic gas the next time it was opened. Mara was a little slower, she gave the vault one last inspection, snagging another bit of sculpture before she too closed her bag.  
  
“Back to the library?” Luke hefted his bag to his shoulder, giving it a shake to make sure the contents were settled.   
  
“I’ve got to take the shield down, but yeah.” She had her own bag, and he was pleased to see she was drawing on the force to help carry the weight. Mara tended to use her own strength before utilizing the force, and getting her to use it more consistently was an ongoing project.  
  
He walked to the hole in the wall, readying himself for the trip back. It shouldn’t be too much work, they’d planned things well, and the only tricky part remaining was going to be cleanly concealing their exit from the library. He’d welded plenty of things with his lightsaber though. The first time he’d felt guilty about using a family heirloom so ignobly, but everything he knew about Anakin Skywalker told him he’d approve.   
  
Luke reached into the force as Mara started to disable the shield, getting ready to take over, but with it he felt a sudden surge of warning. The massive door to the vault shuddered, shaking the entire room. Trinkets fell from the shelves and shattered, but more concerning was the room’s ceiling. Panels he’d thought were simply decorative dropped away as platforms lowered through them.   
  
Bronze droids unfolded from crouched positions as they descended, spherical shields snapping up around them. The constant pounding on the door made their motions seem almost choregraphed, their startup sequence as a dance. They touched the ground just as the door’s shields started to whine.   
  
His saber snapped into life on reflex as he dodged the first salvo before swatting back the next. The droids had powerful blasters built into their arms, he felt the impact reverberate through him even with the force. He could hold them off indefinitely, but the alarm had been raised. They could run, but they’d leave behind evidence. Escaping back through the storm would be almost impossible if they were being attacked at the same time, and he’d definitely reveal his presence.  
  
The droids had to be destroyed, and thoroughly. He charged, calling on as much of the force as he dared. Normally he’d be a blur, moving faster than the droids’ optics could even resolve, but he needed to be careful. Finesse had never been his strong suit, strength had, but in attacking the droids he needed it. All three of the droids turned towards him, recognizing him as their greatest threat.  
  
Luke had cut his way through vastly larger forces before, but that had relied on careful tactics and planning. Jedi could be killed by normal beings, the force was a powerful ally, but even with it triumph wasn’t guaranteed. Standing between three droids with heavy weapons at point blank range was the sort of situation he tried to avoid.  
  
Mara changed the odds. Her blue saber bisected the one closest to her before it spun back to her hand, and in the split second as the droids analyzed the new threat Luke moved. His blade licked out, slicing the blasters off one as he slipped past the fire of the other. It had split its attention between Mara and him, and one cannon was far easier to dodge than six.   
  
Mara finished the distracted droid as he looked at the one he’d disarmed. The pounding on the doors was growing louder in concert with the shields protecting it.   
  
“We need something to cover our escape.”  
  
Mara didn’t look up as she carefully stabbed the droids she’d killed, presumably destroying their memory cores. “We’ve got maybe thirty seconds till that door drops.”  
  
“A nice big explosion would hide our tracks nicely.”  
  
“That’s why you left stumpy there?” The handless droid did look lost without its weapons.   
  
“Battle droids have a reputation for volatility.”  
  
“Overblown.” She stepped past him and precisely stabbed Stumpy. It stopped shuffling and instead dropped its shield as it curled up. “If they’re coming in like that they’re thieves.” She ignored the hypocrisy. “Let’s just take them out.” It wasn’t any different than letting them die in an explosion, but it was always easier to kill at a remove. Mara could clearly feel his reluctance. “We can try to stun them.”  
  
Her saber returned to her belt as she grabbed her bag of loot and leapt on top of the vault’s door, it was the only place they could possibly ambush the robbers from and Luke followed. Beneath them it shuddered, and the shield generators were making a clicking noise he knew was the indication of immediate failure. One more smash was all it took. A generator tore itself apart, sending shards of metal pinging out across the room. The force warned him enough to twitch out of the way, but a jagged fragment embedded itself in the wall next to his leg, leaving a neat line sliced through his coveralls.   
  
Mara had sensibly insisted on suit sealing kits when he’d left them off the initial list, and now she was going to be insufferable. Luckily before she could say anything the door fell forward with a titanic clang, a giant dent from whatever ram had smashed it distorting the entire slab. Luke tensed, getting ready to attack or defend, beside him Mara had her carbine out and aimed.   
  
The robbers strode through the door in a ragged line The revealed leader was a massive alien, one Luke was surprised to see he recognized. The baragwin from the tournament wasn’t dressed in a neat suit this time, instead he had an exoskeleton, the type used for construction. Normally the machines were impractical, but on the alien’s giant frame the servos and steel reinforcements had just let him batter down thirty tons of steel.   
  
Around him his gang was less notable, fanning out but all clearly armed and dangerous. They were also all focused on the neat hole in the wall Mara had made, and more importantly the sparking atmospheric shield. It had been hit by the shrapnel and the air near it was already changing color.   
  
Sand swirled in, and when it hit the ground acrid smoke rose up. For a moment Luke thought they’d do the sensible thing and run, none of them were wearing gas masks, but as ever greed overwhelmed common sense.  
  
“Get what you can!” The Baragwin’s voice was a roar, and it doomed them. The thieves darted forward, and any hope they’d somehow miss their hiding spot was lost when one half turned and shrieked at the sight of them.  
  
Mara opened fire. Her blaster fire was as accurate as ever, most of the thieves dropped before they could even get their hands to their weapons. The exception was the Baragwin. With the exoskeleton it moved faster than it had any right too, and the stun bolts washed over it. Mara switched to actual bolts, but by the time she had the alien was wearing a helmet that had somehow unfolded from his suit and was carrying a weapon that wouldn’t look out of place on a starfighter.   
  
Luke blocked the first shot, but the impact nearly tore his saber from his hands and only a desperate leap carried him away from the next salvo. Mara wasn’t as lucky, the wall just next to her erupted- she fell and didn’t move. Luke was left alone against the massive alien.  
  
“Valist!” The being roared as his cannon spat fire. “The Empire will make this vault seem like nothing for a Jedi!”  
  
He didn’t understand how the alien knew his name, before insight came, the cut in his suit. The thing had a massive nose, apparently it worked. That changed nothing. The battle had to end quickly and the creature had sealed its death warrant when it injured Mara who was still terrifyingly still.  
  
Two more steps, two more dodges, a slash that removed the baragwin’s capacity to shoot, and a slash that removed its ability to do anything at all.   
  
The sudden quiet, not silence, the wind hissing in was too loud for that, was a shock. The other thieves were stunned, and with Bonadan’s atmosphere flooding in they were likely dead.  
  
Priorities. First, he sealed his own suit, the adhesive patch going on smoothly. Second, Mara, she was stirring, but her suit had far too many tears to patch. Options flooded him, storming the casino using whatever slicing tricks the thieves had to hide their presence, brute forcing a bubble of clean air around them as he carried her outside, simply abandoning the plan and calling for Garm, but none felt right.   
  
Finesse. His eyes moved to their bags of stolen goods, bags that were airtight. The force didn’t give a hint so he dumped out Mara’s bag, save only for the plant, before maneuvering her into it and zipping it up.   
  
The surviving thieves he flung into the corridor before using the force to shift the door into place. The Baragwin he was temporarily at a loss of what to do with before the solution became obvious. The alien had explosives on his belt and it was only the work of a moment to set them for a few minutes. He dragged the corpse to the hole and pushed him out into the breeze, the exoskeleton and armor almost immediately began to corrode. He gave the room a final scan, it was scarred and broken but he couldn’t see anything that would point to them or that a Jedi had been there. The neat cuts on the droids were already getting rougher thanks to the acid in the air and the explosions should do more than enough to mangle them.  
  
In any case, the force was insistent, he had to move. Hoisting Mara and the bag of credits he went back into the storm.


	19. XIX

Pok smoothed his coat, trying to restrain shivers. Dient’s southern continent was cold, and past that he was nervous about his mission. He’d been the obvious choice for the meet since the other group knew his face, but that was small consolation. Cham had sent him with his customary brief instructions, but even that couldn’t conceal the risk they were taking. They knew next to nothing about this admiral, and his agents were dangerous.

Jedi were killers, no one who lived through the Clone Wars could be ignorant of that. They presented themselves as diplomats, but in the Outer Rim they’d been the enforcers of the Senate’s will. He knew that Cham had worked with some during the war, and he could barely believe the stories even from the man’s own lips. A Jedi general arrived and the war on Ryloth ended, one man worth more than armies. He’d had an army too, but it seemed almost incidental, thousands of men and ships, and even destiny caught in the Jedi’s wake.

And now he was waiting for the agent of a man who controlled a Jedi. Perhaps he was even waiting for a Jedi, where there was one there might be others. Waiting wouldn’t change anything though, and they needed the information. Cham had given him a comm frequency that he was to call when he was ready, and with one last look around the windswept plaza he punched in the number.

The comm link chimed twice before it warbled, and static filled the connection. Whoever the contact was wanted to be sure they couldn’t be traced, there was an echo that indicated the presence of multiple relays.

“Riffic City, two hours, and be in the central plaza.” Pok spat the words into his hand, wherever on Dient his contact was they could make it if they hurried. “There’s benches around the middle, go from one side to the other three times and I’ll meet you.”

“Do I have to? Cold for these old bones to wait it is.”

The ice running down Pok’s lekku had nothing to do with the weather. He slowly turned and saw nothing before there was a cough from below his waist. He looked down to see a bizarre green eared creature with the rest entirely hidden beneath a thick parka staring up at him. It held a comm link in its claws and as it tapped the receiver he could hear the noise from his after a second’s delay.

“Best for us not to linger outside I think.” It nodded its head towards what looked like a bakeshop. “And that smell, some things are more important than the fate of the galaxy.”

Pok could only follow the little alien, barely resisting the urge to break into a sprint and abandon the entire mission. The feeling didn’t subside but getting out of the frigid air was almost enough to make him forget how worried he should be.

The worker at the counter was some near human species, but the speed and surety that their hands moved with indicated something more than just the baseline. “What will you two have?” She didn’t look up as she kept mixing some concoction. “The next set of rinths won’t be done for another half hour, but if you just want caf-“

“That’ll be fine.” Pok cut her off, his nerves didn’t help his manners. He glanced at the board showing prices and slid her a cred chip. “Keep the change.” He took the two extruded foam cups from her, he hoped the tip he’d left made up for his rudeness, and for a second he felt grateful to the little creature for its idea. The drinks’ warmth restored sensation to his fingers and as he took a sip he could almost forget he was on a frozen planet with a possible Jedi who didn’t seem to understand tradecraft.

The alien nimbly hopped onto a stool, and Pok took the other seat, the one that let him see the entrances to the shop. It was just another red flag that the being didn’t know what he was doing, but there was a spark of intelligence in the sentient’s eyes. For a moment Pok felt as though he was sitting across the table from something vastly older and more powerful than him, something that was terrifying the same way gutkurrs had been to primitive Twi’leks when the predators roamed just beyond the firelight. Then the alien pulled his hat off and smiled. The lines that could only come from extreme age and his wispy hair couldn’t seem dangerous; the threat was gone. Pok instantly felt foolish. He was an experienced agent, he knew better than to jump at shadows.

“Do you have them?” He kept his voice low but didn’t lean over the table. Speaking quietly was one thing, looking furtive another.

“The plans?” The being grinned toothily and his ears twitched. “A question first yes?”

Pok glanced at the worker, she was closer than he’d like, and the little alien craned his upper body around. Something clattered in a back room behind the counter, and the worker went to investigate leaving them alone in the shop.

“What?” He wanted to be gone as soon as possible, back on a ship to Ryloth and away from untrained spies. If they were going to be unprofessional they could at least do it while no one could overhear.

“Why do you fight?”

“For my world, for my people.” He didn’t even have to think about the answer. “Now, do you have them?”

“With the admiral’s compliments.” A datastick was produced from the alien’s thick coat, revealing another layer of clothing beneath it. He had to mentally adjust his image of the creature, it was much less rotund than he’d thought. “But just from me, a small price.” He’d already slid the plans to Pok, and most of him wanted to just leave, but something made him stay to hear the being out. “Consider the rest of the galaxy and think about what let the Empire rise.” The alien picked up his cup, he used two hands as it was half the size of his head, and took a long slurp. Pok copied him for lack of anything better to do.

Agreeing was free. “Sure. Anything else?”

The alien jerked his ears in a way that emphatically indicated a negative. “No. Go, go take your plans, go enjoy the cold. Stay here a little I will, soak in the warmth.” It was tempting, but Pok had a cause. He stood up from the table, took his caf and steeled himself to walk back into the wind.

The commlink he’d used to try to contact the alien went into the trash after he pulled the power cell, and he began the long circuitous procedure to get back to the safehouse. He didn’t know how the alien had found him so easily, the Jedi he’d met must have taken a holo for identification, but he couldn’t rule out other operatives. He’d have to carefully ensure he wasn’t followed before he could return and report back to Cham. Sitting inside a warm building drinking hot beverages sounded amazing in contrast.

* * *

  
“Do you know how much you cost?” The Inquisitor kept his eyelids shut as he stood on the bridge. He’d been spending more time amongst the clones since he’d returned from his reeducation.

“I’m not sure what you mean, sir.” The captain was as ever scrupulously correct, its conditioning prevented it from being otherwise.

“It’s a simple question captain.” He paused, letting the clone wait and wonder. “You’re a weapon, a tool. You’re aware that your armor has a price, what do you think yours was?”

There was the feeling he was waiting for. This clone hadn’t been involved in Order 66, with only ten thousand Jedi the vast majority hadn’t been, but the instructions had been sent all the same. They knew they were the next best thing to droids, and it pained them.

“That information has not been shared with me, Sir.”

“Take your best guess.” He’d learned from his master during his lessons, more than perhaps he was meant to. The fear and uncertainty, he could use it.

“Counting training, perhaps one hundred thousand?”

“Perhaps if you were in the first set produced. The Kaminoans refined their work considerably as they went on. By the time they got to your batch it was perhaps one tenth of that.” The clone’s anger swirled around it, and the Inquisitor basked in it before shifting to less pleasant pursuits.

“Bring up the tactical display.”

His failure had had consequences. He’d been taken off the hunt for the Jedi and given lesser tasks. The Inquisition didn’t solely concern itself with the light side of the force, their remit extended to dealing with any being that used the force for anything other than serving the Empire. Many were never found, even at the height of their power the Jedi estimated they only encountered a single percent of the potential adepts, and many more would never discover their abilities without training. There were those that did though, the ambitious and lucky, and of them most used the dark side as was only natural.

He’d been forced to see the truth by his master, that the Jedi had cut themselves off from the will of the force and the greater galaxy. In their temple they’d been unable to see the real path, the path to power and victory, the dark side. It was so clear that he couldn’t believe that he’d once been so blinded by cant and orthodoxy, blind to the struggle and the solution.

Something living on the station his destroyer was approaching had seen it. They had somehow learned and found their own power and without training had seized onto the truth the Jedi had refused. There was power in hatred, fear, and passion; power greater than anything that could be found in the light. It didn’t matter though, they would serve or be destroyed.

He opened his eyelids and felt the surge of disgust from the veteran clone. Vader had taken his sight as punishment, and not neatly. It was a miracle that he’d been survived it, and another that his master still had enough use for him to avoid killing him as an example.

When he’d awoken from his coma the ruins of his eyes were gone and implants had been installed, but purposefully incorrectly. His orbital bones didn’t set properly around the metal frames, and the nerve interface was calibrated to make all light painfully bright. It took a constant effort of will to see anything beyond a searing glare, and any light burned. Even that might have been bearable, the force made vision a luxury, but Vader delighted in petty cruelties. His many banal orders were printed on flimsiplast, and he had no choice but to read the hundreds of pages of briefings and intelligence his master chose to share. 

He’d learned though, his pain was a source of power, and his hatred for Vader an even more potent one. As they approached the station the Inquisitor let his hand fall to his saber, he’d kill this upstart and test his newfound strength. Perhaps he could do more, scanning the display he could see elaborate defenses set in the hangers that would take a bloody toll on any assault. The fear of the clones was lending him power, intensifying his connection to the dark side. He needed more. Increasing their fear would give him that, someday even enough to contend with and defeat the true powers. He’d break them all- the Jedi with the green blade, Vader, the Emperor, anyone that chained him. The force would free him.


	20. XX

The plant had pride of place in the cockpit. Mara had woken halfway back to the library and hadn’t been too amused to find the crystal enclosure bouncing on her head at every step. She was too disciplined to complain about that, but Luke thought he saw her eye twitch when he moved the crystal terrarium to its new home.  
  
She’d had more time to get used to it than either of them would have liked. Leaving Bonadan had gone smoothly, even with the unexpected pyrotechnics the casino hadn’t announced anything. Two days later they simply walked to their berth and took off, not bothering to file a flight plan. After a short jump core-ward to ensure their vector wasn’t traced they were ready to start spending money.  
  
Astromechs were available on every half decent world, and Luke had acquired a thorough grounding in the various models’ capacities when he was with the Alliance. R2 was always the gold standard, but for the kind of work they’d be doing they didn’t need brilliance, just diligence. Droids were better than people for that.  
  
Quite a lot of hard stolen credits later they were the proud owners of a used cargo freighter and as many astromechs as they could stuff in its hold. Luke had stripped one down to the circuit boards to check for tracking hardware, given it a memory wipe, and then set it to start inspecting the others. It would be enough to deal with casual scrutiny, and there wasn’t any reason for anyone to be looking more closely.  
  
They’d bought a mix of types, scattering their purchases across the planet, which was sure to cause them annoyances later. There was some utility in having numerous types for security and slicing resistance, but in practice it just meant that there’d be numerous types of maintenance problems. Hopefully the droids would deal with them themselves.  
  
Those steps hadn’t taken long though, they’d worked quickly only to end up waiting once again. Gerson was at least an interesting system, even after half a lifetime in space he could still enjoy the arcs and curves of orbits as the moons and planets circled.  
  
Garm at least had something to do, he and the droids were readying the Lucrehulks as much as they could before they had to fire up the reactors which would reveal their presence. They were done with the necessary work and had moved onto lower priorities just to stay busy. From experience Luke was sure that there’d still be problems, just following the checklists to restore the mothballed capital ships to operation wouldn’t be enough. The real test of their repairs would be when they tried to get the ships moving and without Yoda and his ship for the rescued prisoners they couldn’t even start.  
  
“Still no word from Yoda?” Mara’s voice preceded her as she ducked into the cockpit, a steaming mug of something in her hands.  
  
He took a moment to look at her as she waited for an answer, like him she had gotten dressed for their mission in case they needed to go at a moment’s notice. Unlike him she’d taken off her armorweave jacket, leaving her in a tight shirt that showed off more than just the weapons that would normally be concealed.  
  
“Nothing since his message that he’d found his ship.”  
  
“If he hadn’t just taken off the three of us could have seized anything we wanted and not had to mess around with whatever he’s doing.” She slumped into the co-pilot’s chair, and despite the apparent lack of grace none of her hardware made so much as a clank. Mara’s slurp was aggressively loud as if in compensation, and Luke caught of whiff of her drink, some kind of soup. She eyed him over the rim of her cup and he could feel a brief flare of curiosity. “Are you seriously still cold?”  
  
Luke glanced down at himself. It hadn’t occurred to him, but his heavy jacket was tightly sealed, and he was still wearing thin gloves on both of his hands. “Maybe?”  
  
“If you didn’t keep your room a sauna you’d probably be able to handle normal temperatures without such a ridiculous amount of clothing.” She stretched luxuriously, showing off how unencumbered she was by excess insulation. Luke couldn’t bring himself to complain.  
  
“I deal with differing climates perfectly well.” That didn’t mean he wouldn’t argue.  
  
“The same way a trandoshan does,” she slurped again, daring him to say something. “You know a cold-blooded species?”  
  
“I’m not an ectotherm.” Mara theatrically turned her head, and he twisted to see what she was looking at. The climate control vents were pointed directly at him and set to a perfectly normal temperature. Boiling water was an incredibly common phenomenon and definitely counted as normal so anything less was fine. “Shut up.” Her slurp sounded like defeat.  
  
Mara was content to bask in her victory for a moment, but as ever she grew anxious as soon as she felt that she could be doing something. “The guard rotations and shifts haven’t changed?”  
  
“Eleven hour shifts with an hour of overlap for the miners.” Gerson had a twenty three hour day, which was just far enough from normal to be annoying, but too close to bother taking circadian modifiers. “I think they use the time when no one is working for maintenance.” Luke pulled up the data that they’d been able to intercept from orbit.  
  
Mara scrolled through it, but without much interest. Nothing had changed in the weeks they’d been waiting. “Or maybe prospecting, without a technological edge I wouldn’t want to be around thousands of slaves armed with pickaxes.”  
  
“Ionite is that debilitating?” He’d heard of the mineral, but to his knowledge never encountered any.  
  
“By itself and in normal quantities no.” Mara looked mournfully into her now empty mug. “But in a mine, with it dusted through the air? Electronics would have to be specially treated, and I wouldn’t want to depend on a blaster in those conditions.”  
  
“Do you think we have to do anything to make sure we’re fine?” His saber leapt to his hand and in a process that had long become effortless he began to disassemble it with the force.  
  
“It’s not magic, if the ionite doesn’t get close to anything it shouldn’t matter. If something can work underwater it’ll work.”  
  
Luke nodded absently as he turned his attention to the seals in his weapon. Every part of the saber was familiar, he felt closer to it than his new hand. All the components felt safe, trustworthy, and comfortable as he confidently reassembled it. When he was done it landed in his hand, a touch harder than usual. His previous flesh mimicking hand had included some sort of gel to replicate the feel of skin and muscle, unlike the thin coating over metal bones he had now.  
  
“Besides, if we end up just flying in and strafing the camp with the A-Wing we won’t even need any of this gear.” Mara poked at the blaster hanging on his hip. “You can outfly anything they can bring to bear, and its not like we have to worry about keeping it a secret.”  
  
“No, you’re right. We can get another one pretty easily.” The guns would be tricky though, it had been much harder to find the appropriate models than he’d been expecting. The force gave hints but buying illegal upgrades for fighter was an inherently chancy business.  
  
“Also, I think that-“  
  
“Go away!” The annoyed shout of a three year old girl had become increasingly normal during their preparations. Mara sighed and got up to investigate. Luke stayed, trying to think of a good justification to not get involved.  
  
Little Mara was normally a sweet child, contrary to both of their expectations, but she’d gotten used to novelty. Hanging out on the Jade’s Fire while they got ready to steal a fleet wasn’t the sort of treatment she was accustomed to, and the babysitting droid they’d acquired was unequal to the task. Luckily it was also the usual target of her ire, and an appearance by anyone else was enough to mollify her. Suppressing a groan he stood, hopefully it would be resolved by the time he got there, but he didn’t feel optimistic.  
  
They’d filled her room with what felt like an entire toy store, neither of them had had entirely normal childhoods and it was possible they’d gone slightly overboard. As Luke arrived it seemed like all of them were on the floor, a solid layer of dolls, puzzles, balls, and art supplies. The two Maras were staring at each other, although the younger one didn’t seem quite as committed to the contest. The nanny droid next to them was doing its best to stay out of the way regardless.  
  
“If there’s no clear room for CCD to move it will step on your things.” Mara’s tone was level. “If you want to trap it and roam the ship unsupervised you’ll have to try harder.”  
  
“I don’t want to be on the ship!” She stomped and was only briefly distracted by the flimsy she’d crumpled beneath her foot. “When can we go to the ocean?”  
  
Mara’s eyes snapped to Luke and he shook his head. He’d never understood the appeal of salt water seas, and the sand wasn’t a special occasion. Garm though, he’d been telling stories.  
  
“Bel Iblis.” She growled the name. He wasn’t the only one who’d had the thought. “Of course he’d give her the idea and then vanish onto those carriers where he won’t have to deal with the consequence.”  
  
“He’s been stuck with three hundred droids on dead ships by himself for two weeks.”  
  
“Enjoying the peace and quiet I bet.” He could feel her mood shift, cycling rapidly, and then a grin stretched across her face. “You know what, let’s go to the beach. Our next optimal window for a raid isn’t for twenty something hours, and Yoda hasn’t gotten back to us yet so realistically it can’t even be that short a time.”  
  
“Really?” They both responded at the same time, although the little girl was far more excited.  
  
“Sure, we’ve spent most of the last month working non-top, and once we get those ships it’ll be more of the same. We deserve it.” Her grin turned a little sharper. “Besides, you owe me. I’ve been the one wearing tight clothes on all of these adventures.”


	21. XXI

The beach had its perks, not least the sun blasting down at them. Luke was a child of the desert, and even though he had been happy to leave it felt wrong to look down and see pale skin without even the hint of a tan. Mara had disagreed. He looked back from the waterline to see his- his compatriot- huddled in a pool of shadow beneath an almost comically brilliant awning before splashing at his feet distracted him.  
  
Mara hadn’t remembered when she learned to swim, and so neither of them had any real reason to doubt her younger doppelganger when she said she could. Her first encounter with the water had shown that for a lie, but with characteristic stubbornness the little girl hadn’t let that stop her.  
  
Watching her run through the tidal pools with the other children he couldn’t see any difference, they all shared the same excitement through the force and same happiness. The others probably wouldn’t try to brag about their training as a weapon, but past that she was just another three year old.  
  
“That’s what I was hoping for.” He’d sensed Mara’s approach, but not the faint touch of her mind. He didn’t think about what it could mean, but instead smirked. Her sudden embarrassment at what she’d done was safer. “Maybe you should work on your shields, farm boy.”  
  
“This is what we’re working for-“ he was cut off by a comparatively light shoulder check and had to draw on the force to keep from stumbling into the water. He glanced at her and had to look away before he burst out laughing.  
  
“We’re on a beach, our first real downtime in months.” Her words were emerging from somewhere beneath an enormous pastel sunhat. “Give the speeches a rest, I know what we’re doing.” She bumped his shoulder again, this time more gently. “How’s the water?”  
  
Luke stepped into it, and immediately regretted his choice. His feet were burning with the cold, something that wasn’t troubling the shrieking children sprinting through the waves. Mara more sensibly just dipped a single toe in, and daintily withdrew it.  
  
“I see.”  
  
After a few seconds it wasn’t as bad, which probably indicated his nerves had been destroyed by the icy water. Just because nothing worse could happen, and not because it would irritate Mara to be shown up, he stayed as the waves washed up to his shins. “The desert did get cold at night-“  
  
“If you wanted to sell that you probably shouldn’t be using half of the life support budget to keep your room hot.” He turned to stare down at her hat. “And yes, I know you once spent an entire night on Hoth inside of a-“  
  
He cut her off the only way he could, yanking her back into the water before she could react. Her stunned expression was worth the heart-stopping chill as they both crashed to the sand. She shot up sputtering, her hat gone, and looking at her was worth the glare.   
  
He was only human though, and as he stood up, wincing at the grit in his hand, he drew upon the force for warmth. It was steadying, his gasps turned into even breaths, but with it he felt something in the water, something that hungered.  
  
Mara was already moving as he turned, heedless of the cold she sprinted through the shallows. Their girl had stopped, some instinctual grasp of her powers had alerted her to the danger, but Luke could sense that she wasn’t threatened even as a panicked spy raced towards her.  
  
No, the problem was elsewhere. Lurking beneath the surface he could feel a simple mind, a beast from the depths. He didn’t know what it was, he only got the impression of sinuous curves and snapping teeth, but its will couldn’t equal his. It struggled, he could sense the creature’s victories in battles past, but in the end, it was just an animal. He was a Jedi.  
  
His partner had returned as he concentrated, her massive hat now on the girl she was carrying. “It’s gone?”  
  
“Yeah, back to wherever ugly fish things go.” He took a second to look at them, and the surge of contentedness surprised him. They’d been flung into a galaxy absent their friends with their enemies returned to their greatest strengths, but in that moment he felt he was doing exactly what he was meant to be doing. Mara raised a skeptical eyebrow, but he threw an arm over her shoulders as they walked back up the beach. “Is anyone else hungry? I’m feeling seafood, preferably fried.”  
  


* * *

  
Something was coming, Ahsoka could sense it. It wasn’t the sharpness of imminent danger nor the grinding unease of an Inquisitor plotting evil, but something grander. Every time the holonet chirped she expected some grand revelation, some sign that the battles that had consumed her youth were about to reignite. There wasn’t one though, just the constant anticipation. Part of her believed it was building to a climax, but years hidden had taught her the dangers of optimism. What would be, would be, and until then she had a job to do.  
  
Right now the job felt like violence.  
  
“We’re not paying that.” The smuggler across the table from her grinned, showing off the existence of a complex subculture of tooth engravers Ahsoka would have been happy to remain ignorant of. Based on the smell of his breath he also had a complex fungal culture on his teeth, but she didn’t think that was intentional.  
  
“You’re paying one way or another.” He meant it as a threat, and with three of his men in the crowd behind her in the busy cantina it would normally be an effective one. The betrayal wasn’t a surprise., Getting black market weapons was a chancy business and by necessity she wasn’t able to point to a larger organization that would avenge her. All she could do was seem as dangerous as possible, something that was getting easier as she kept growing.  
  
Anakin would have been better at it, when he’d wanted he’d exuded menace. Humans weren’t the most powerful species, they were weak, fragile, and nearly blind but her master could stare down anything and make them know that they only lived through his sufferance. He was dead though.  
  
“You don’t want to do this.” For a moment she could feel his resolve shift, but something, probably one of his gang behind her gave him courage. He didn’t banter further. His hand went for the blaster at his side in a motion so smooth and efficient that she could almost see the endless hours of practice.  
  
It wasn’t enough. Her kick knocked the table up, sending the heavy wood into his chest as she pushed her chair back to the floor and rolled. Blaster bolts spat over her, burning through the space she’d just been sitting in. She bounced off the sticky floor, her weapon leapt from its holster as her closed fist smashed one of the smugglers, a heartbeat later her blaster was in her hand. Three gentle pulls of the trigger ended the fight, leaving her the last one standing in a rapidly emptying bar.   
  
She followed the surge, wrapping herself in the force to seem less memorable. It was harder that it once was, her increased size balanced her skill, and people usually tended to remember the person who opened fire in a crowded place. She’d been taught well though, changing her posture and moving quickly got her into the densest part, and as soon as she broke sightlines the misdirection prevented her from being recognized again.   
  
Less than a minute later she was out on the street in the cool night air, and the only warning the force was giving her was the constant buzz. She wasn’t worried about the authorities, she was operating under a fake name and the men she’d killed hadn’t been pillars of the community. They weren’t even locals, just more travelers setting down on another hunk of rock and dirt.  
  
It was strange to think that most in the galaxy lived on a planet. Ahsoka had walked on hundreds, but she’d only lived on three. Past that it had been an endless stream of spaceports, bars, and battlefields. They all blended together, the only differences were cosmetic. A few extra moons, a distinct odor, some odd weather, in the end as long as ships could land, shots could be served, and separatists fought they were the same.  
  
Living with the Fardis and Kaedan had been when she’d seen more, and it had made her wonder what it would have been like to stay on Shili. Ahsoka couldn’t see herself being happy in the grasslands of her homeworld, but she’d have been different. Maybe the stars wouldn’t call to her with the promise of adventure.  
  
Her thoughts while walking had taken her back to her ship, a small freighter. Bail had suggested a larger vessel, something Corellian, but while she was operating on her own she wanted something designed for a single passenger. Anakin would have taken a larger ship, the allure of power and space would have made up for the increased work, but in some things she was still sure she knew better.   
  
She locked the hatch behind her as she climbed in, her bed suddenly calling her, but a flashing light from the main console stopped her. Any other channel she would have ignored, but this one was a priority. Every Jedi she knew was gone, and the force had been silent when she searched for them. If she’d been a better Jedi that might have been enough to make her stop looking. Ahsoka couldn’t match the might of the Empire nor the resources of the Inquisitors, but she’d known the Jedi. There was a thriving industry for finding people, and it was easy to get inside of it. Putting in searches for the aliases she knew had been a longshot and now after a year something had finally triggered it.   
  
Ahsoka walked slowly, forcing herself to stay calm as she approached the comm station. She knew it wasn’t Anakin, that had been clear immediately, but perhaps Obi-Wan or Master Sinube had somehow slipped through. She sat, running her hands up her montrals in one last effort to keep her composure. The alert kept blinking, and at last she couldn’t think of a reason to wait. One flick of a switch and an almost laughably gravely voice filled the cockpit.  
  
“We’ve got a hit on Adoy.” The buzz went silent.


	22. XXII

Yoda had taught them that the force would become clear when they were calm, passive, and at peace, but the force never spoke as loudly to Luke as when he had a fighter strapped to his back.  
  
His hands were light on the yoke, and the A-wing responded to even the finest motions. It wasn’t his first love, but the part of him that had never left Beggar’s Canyon exulted in the sheer power of the Kuati engines. They weren’t even fully warmed up yet and the speed they’d reached matched the limits of an X-wing. He twitched to the right, rolling into a long banking turn that took them away from Gerson’s populated areas.  
  
The thick air buffeted the craft, it wasn’t the same clinical experience fighting in space, but it was familiar. Part of him wanted to switch off the ray shields to feel the actual aerodynamics of the A-wing, but the stresses would likely tear the guns off. They’d need those.  
  
“Having fun up there?” Mara hadn’t complained about his acrobatics, and he didn’t need special powers to hear her amusement. “Why don’t you try being a bit more obvious and buzz the beaches?”  
  
Just for her he dropped, racing a meter above the tree tops as he centered himself. The flight computer was blaring warnings about imminent collisions, but it was part of the physical world. With the force as his ally he wasn’t so limited.  
  
“Orbital insertion in five minutes.” Yoda had called them two days before, he’d somehow acquired a ship and skeleton crew. He hadn’t shared many details, or any really, but the converted passenger liner would hold the entire complement of miners. Getting them onboard a slave ship was likely to pose difficulties, but Luke had decided to let the Jedi Master worry about that. Trading one set of chains for another possible set wasn’t the most compelling, but few craft were designed to set down on a planet and rapidly take on sentient passengers.  
  
They didn’t respond to the communication, it wasn’t likely that the camp was on high enough alert to be monitoring for transmissions but getting sloppy only led to bad habits. With some reluctance he shifted power from the engines to the weapon systems. In space they’d have held their speed, but in the atmosphere the fighter decelerated immediately. Luke almost squeezed off a few shots out of habit, just to check the cannons, but held off. They’d work.  
  
“You ready?” Initially Mara wasn’t coming along on the mission, Luke had attacked far harder targets and didn’t expect any real difficulties from a work camp on a backwater world. The goal was more than just destruction though. They’d rigged up a series of electronic countermeasures and sensors, making the most of the second seat. Their raid was meant to be as big a distraction as possible while Garm got the Lucrehulks moving, and as good a pilot Luke was he could only fly one fighter at a time. Mara was responsible for selling the illusion it was an entire wing of fighters, she’d fill the air with chatter and false returns while Luke focused on replicating the damage.  
  
“Just get us over the camp, the sooner we get out of this system the better.” He could tell from the sudden draw on the powerplant that she’d switched on the electronics. “And remember, take out their sensors first.”  
  
“Roger that.” The world went quiet as he made the final turn for their approach. He checked the settings one final time almost absently, temperatures were fine, fuel levels were topped off, and the reactor was ticking along at full military power. The mine was in the foothills of a major mountain range, and the terrain provided plenty of cover from scanners. He idly dipped into a river valley, slaloming along the curves before pulling up to just barely clear a waterfall. “Thirty seconds, to target. Let’s go loud in fifteen, fourteen..”  
  
He trailed off as he felt Mara take up the count, focusing only on the present. This was familiar, it was where he belonged. He drummed his fingers one last time on the triggers, reviewing his arsenal before it was time for some real flying.  
  
They flashed over the camp, and Luke stomped on the pedals as he zeroed one throttle, flinging the A-wing into a flat spin. Targets flickered in front of him, and his cannons spat fire that he didn’t need to watch to know it hit. With a lurch that the inertial damperners couldn’t completely smooth he accelerated out of the turn, squeezing off an unguided concussion missile at the primary administrative building.  
  
He could feel the panic beneath them as he pulled the fighter into a tight loop, his shots adding to the chaos as he blew apart the generators and guard barracks. There was a twinge of warning in the force and he juked left, impressively accurate fire coming from a single tower. He broke their targeting solution with a twisting turn, the blaster bolts punching into the sky away from his flight path before his strafing run leveled the duracrete structure.  
  
“Liberator you’re clear for descent.” Mara’s voice carried the strain she was under. “Anti-air defenses have been suppressed.”  
  
“Roger that Rogue One. Beginning our landing.” Luke hadn’t been able to resist claiming the call sign, he might have given it to Wedge but it would always be his. A timer popped up in his HUD showing the ETA of the larger ship. A sudden flare from Mara made him swerve out of an excess of caution, before she explained.  
  
“Fighters inbound, a squadron from the capitol.”  
  
“What kind?” He kept looking for targets as he waited.  
  
“Belbullabs, more of the Confederacy’s cast offs.” He knew the type, or he’d known them. They weren’t bad, and he’d kind of enjoyed the ability to drag his ship around by engines in the front.  
  
“Do we have enough sensor resolution for the concussion missiles?” He turned towards the approaching fighters, trusting in the force to get him through a zero-deflection encounter. “I’d rather knock them out quickly so they can’t get a lucky shot on the carrier.”  
  
“They’re flying straight and level, loft them and we’ll see what the seeker heads do.”  
  
Toggling between targets Luke suited actions to words, sending the missiles downrange on different trajectories to minimize the chance the targeting software would pick the same fighters. That done he climbed, flying low was useful when he wanted to hide but it was just another danger in a chaotic melee.  
  
He couldn’t see the fighters yet, but he could tell where they were, his sensors were still picking up ghosts, but the force whispered which ones were real. They were closing fast, and in seconds the air would be full of fire.  
  
The missiles hit right as he pulled the trigger, the six he’d launched taking out four of the squadron which was as much as he could hope for. The explosions shattered their cohesion, the tight formation shifting into pairs as the wingmen went evasive. At the extreme range his cannons wouldn’t be a credible threat to the fighters, they were panicking. Normally it would be a terrible response, losing the initiative to a single fighter was inexcusable, but normally he wasn’t flying.  
  
He sliced into the formation, carving off a pair from the pack and sending precise shots into their fuselages. The cockpit being in the rear of the Belbullabs allowed plenty of room for frontal armor but it left the pilots extremely exposed. Another pair spiraling down in flames would reinforce the lesson before the force made him dive to avoid the random spraying of the last ships.  
  
Rookie pilots weren’t a match for him, and he turned back towards the camp as pillars of smoke stretched for the sky behind him.  
  
“Liberator, what’s your status? Over.” They’d only been landed for a few minutes, but combat made time stretch oddly.  
  
“Loading the prisoners. Adoy has gotten them organized somehow.” Luke didn’t bother to suppress his grimace; Yoda’s alias was ridiculous and was begging for trouble. The camp and the ship passed below them as he made a quick pass, looking for any other targets to suppress. He didn’t see any, and the slaver ship Yoda had captured would have weapons powerful enough to deal with guards.  
  
“Do a racetrack pattern around the camp, it’ll make it simpler to layer false contacts.” Mara sounded a bit more relaxed now that things were going to plan. “It sounds like we knocked out their ready craft, the only opposition left flying is that customs cutter.”  
  
“Great, any word from Garm?” Luke took a quick pull from his water bottle and nearly spat it out, it was some sort of electrolyte slurry of the type his partner claimed to enjoy.  
  
“He confirmed reactor ignition on schedule, and if you wanted to pick your drink you should have packed it.”  
  
“Yeah, I was really slacking off when I chose to tune and test the cannons instead.”  
  
“I’m glad we’re in agreement.” Just for that he threw the ship into a roll before leveling out again.  
  
“Mature, I can see you’ve been taking notes from a toddler.”  
  
“From you actually but considering there’s been no visible progress since you were three I can understand the confusion.” He was happy with that comeback and Mara’s lack of an immediate rejoinder until her pause stretched longer than it should have. “What’s wrong?”  
  
Mara didn’t reply directly. “Liberator this is Rogue One, I’m showing multiple new contacts in high orbit. Can you confirm? Over.”  
  
“We see them too.” The voice over the comms was somber.  
  
“How many Mara?”  
  
“I wish you’d saved some of those concussion missiles.”  
  
He hesitated for a second and then pointed the nose skyward. “Liberator you’re going to be on your own for a bit. Good luck.” Acceleration pressed them back into their seats as the sky shifted from blue to a more familiar black. The constant vibration of the air vanished as he slipped out of the atmosphere and the A-wing seemed to come alive as it entered its natural habit, his world, the stars.  
  
The scanners were sharper in the void and the flares of minds in the dark sang out to his senses. They were headed for the surface, for the Liberator, for Yoda.  
  
“He couldn’t pick a better pseudonym?” Mara had come to the same conclusion. “I’ve made twenty of them for each of us. Who did- no who didn’t he irritate?”  
  
“This works in our favor.” Luke adjusted his vector to bring the closest newcomer under his guns. “No one is going to be watching the Lucrehulks.”  
  
For a moment it seemed like he was right, his red bolts streaked into a heavy fighter and crippled it, firmly drawing everyone’s attention before an alert chime sounded off. He didn’t panic, both because he was experienced and because he could feel an ISD transitioning into realspace seconds before it emerged. The sensation was distinctive, and it wasn't present. Things had gone off the rails, but it could have been worse.  
  
“Now what?” Mara hadn’t spent as long in fighters as him, she didn’t know exactly what the sounds meant. “What else just went wrong?”  
  
“Our new ships just registered as being alive.” Luke oriented the A-wing towards where he knew they were. “And considering they’re not belching fighters, they’re looking like easy pickings.” The pirates or whoever were as quick to recognize the possibilities as he was, all of them turning and burning for the capital ships.  
  
“We didn’t go through all this work and Bonadan for someone else to get those ships.” Mara did not sound happy behind him. “Let’s go show them who they belong to.”


	23. XXIII

  
The pirates, or slavers, whoever, had a large lead on them, one that their ship’s engines were rapidly cutting into. Few fighters could match an A-wing in a straight shot, and in a chase that’s all it came down to. The one thing that their fighter truly lacked was teeth. Concussion missiles were fine against smaller craft and soft targets, but they wouldn’t knock out anything the size of light freighter in a single hit.

They would drop the shields though. Luke slid through the blaster bolts from some vaguely trapezoidal ship, slammed a missile into its tail and then finished it with a burst of cannon fire. It wasn’t enough, there were more ships than he could destroy in time, even if they lined themselves up for him.

“I suppose we should warn them.” That was a surprise coming from Mara, she was usually relentlessly practical.

“If two explosions weren’t enough I’m not sure a message will do much.” Despite his doubts he flipped on the comms, broadcasting on an open channel. “Those ships belong to the Admiral. Anyone who touches them will be destroyed.” Raucous laughter and taunts in half a dozen tongues came back and Luke closed the connection. “Showtime then.”

The Lucrehulks were warming up too quickly, Garm had done something to the start procedure because they should have had another hour before the signs were detectable. Even now the fighter’s sensors were picking plumes of exhaust gasses as the mothballed ships’ reactors ignited. More usefully he heard the blaring alert that indicated they had been hit by targeting systems. Luke flipped on his transponder, hoping that it would do something useful, and watched as the robotic gunners started to fill the sky with fire.

Sadly, droids weren’t known for their accuracy and the shots didn’t find their targets as the hostiles approached the ships.

“They’re going to board, which one do you want to guard?” Mara sounded almost happy at the thought. He could hear her checking her various weapons. “Garm can direct the droids on his ship I bet, we’ll need to handle the others.”

“I’ll take the far one, I’ve got to drop you off anyways.” As he spoke he lined up for a run on another ship, stitching his shots along its spine from the engines to the cockpit, leaving it careening away as they raced past.

“Don’t forget to wear a mask, the air is probably-“ muffled cursing came from behind him as Mara stuffed her hair into the helmet. “Stale.”

“Yes dear.” The first of the pirates had just arrived at Garm’s ship, the great docking doors shuddering as they shot their way in. The other groups weren’t far behind, so Luke only scattered a handful of shots as he flew past for the second ship.

The attackers were darting around the hangar entrances, cooperating for the moment as they tried to open a hole. Luke hesitated, trying to decide how best to handle the motley flotilla, but then the force gave a hint. He slammed the throttles to full, and with a reckless disregard for survival flew straight at the durasteel doors.

There wasn’t a gap, not even a crater he could punch through, but the force was insistent. Behind him Mara was- not panicking she didn’t do that- extremely apprehensive. At the last possible second, right when he knew he was committed the means revealed themselves, a proton torpedo blew past them slamming through the meter of hardened metal opening a slit he could just fit the fighter through without leaving paint behind.

Inside the hangar was total darkness, the starlight blocked by the ship’s hull. He went to flip on the headlights then realized that the power for them had been cannibalized for Mara’s electronic warfare suite. It didn’t matter, he didn’t need eyes to fly.

It was one of the first tricks he’d learned, and it had won him more than a few credits from the Rogues, but he’d never truly expected it to be useful as he raced through the cavernous interior of dead starship.

“Let me out by the core, I’ll take the boarding parties as they come.” Mara’s voice was changed to a harsh buzz by her breathing mask’s speakers. The Rebel models Luke had trained with weren’t even equipped with speakers, but Mara was as ever most comfortable with surplus Imperial gear. That and he was sure she liked wearing black.

“Here you go then.” The canopy opened, and Mara was gone, leaping free as soon as it was clear. He lost sight of her immediately, but he could feel her confidence as she ran. Spinning on the repulsors he flew back towards the hanger’s doors. This time he paused before running the gap, waiting near the ceiling as the ships outside kept working on their entrance. No one, well only one other ship had tried to replicate his entrance and he could see their debris on the floor, illuminated by the occasional blast that missed the door.

Luke shifted power from the electronics and engines to the cannons, he’d need the engines in a hurry but a few high-powered shots to the boarders would make Mara’s job a lot easier. He waited for what felt like hours in the stretchy time of combat and the force, but at last a section of plate fifteen meters wide fell with what would be a deafening clang in any atmosphere other than the thin one rapidly exiting into space. A small craft started to nose its way through, and Luke seized his moment.

His last concussion missile led the way and his blaster cannons eviscerated the ship. Every shot landed, and at knife fighting range they penetrated deep. The world went white even through his flash suppressing helmet, but once again he didn’t need eyes to see. He blasted out of the ship, leaving the killzone of the ships trying to get in as he turned towards his Lucrehulk. Mara would have to handle the rest by herself, and he didn’t doubt her at all.

The pirates were already onboard the third ship, and as he flashed through the hole he was tempted to destroy their ships. He didn’t for the simple reason that they’d need somewhere to run. He set the fighter down on one of the gantries that spanned the expanse, in the darkness it would be perfectly hidden, and pulled off his flight helmet. He replaced it with one of Mara’s masks, and he felt the seal form on the armorweave she’d insisted they wear instead of his usual flightsuit. Popping the canopy and climbing out he felt like a third rate stormtrooper, not helped by the HUD or the night vision of the helmet.

Checking he had his weapons he began to run, bounding along the empty supports that he thought once had held vulture droids. He could feel the minds ahead of him, and their conflicts. There were quite a few of them, enough that he’d have to pick them off in chunks. Big, uncomfortably large chunks. Luke hesitated for a moment, then drew on the force without reservations. The inquisitors wouldn’t have time to find them, and he couldn’t fight that many while handicapped.

The world seemed to come into focus, the distance between him and the pirates shrank as he accelerated. He didn’t care if anyone could sense him, the galaxy needed a Skywalker.

* * *

  
The Gerson system emerged in front of her as Ahsoka translated back to normal space, immediately alarms and alerts went off as her ship reported a full-scale battle in orbit. Three Lucrehulks were firing on a mob of smaller craft while a ship that was the same as the one an ‘Adoy’ had stolen burned towards the conflict, trading shots with a customs cutter.

All that was secondary to one overwhelming presence. She didn’t hesitate as she pushed all the power to her engines, the inertial dampeners groaning as she accelerated. Anakin was here, Anakin was alive.

Yoda was forgotten as she flew towards the ship Anakin was fighting on, and she couldn’t help but grin as she approached. It was just as she remembered, the same shining power that made defeat impossible. Her ship fit easily through the opened doors, and just a quick glance at the assemblage made her sure that Anakin’s ship wasn’t there. He wouldn’t have been caught dead flying in any of them. The force drove her onwards, and she set down, barely pausing to grab a breather as she sprinted from her ship, her sabers in her hands, the way it should be.

It had been years since she’d been on a Lucrehulk, they’d been mostly phased out by the time she’d entered the war, but she remembered her training, the fight was on the command sphere. She found the first bodies just outside the blast doors that separated the hangars from the sphere, doors that were bent in their frames. There were explosives on the doors, ones that hadn’t been set off before someone had decided that wrenching fifty tons of metal off their rails with their mind was the easiest way through.

She could feel the fear of the pirates beneath the glorious sensation of Anakin’s power, the dread dawning on them as they fought something beyond mere mortals, and it was only a last-minute twinge that alerted her to her own danger.

Silver light spilled from her hands as she ran towards the pirates, each step taking her closer as her blades batted away blaster bolts. They barely had time to react before she was upon them, graceful Jar’Kai strikes cleaving through their weapons and bodies. The force was especially clear, so often in recent years it had been murky but now she knew exactly what she needed to do.

The dim lighting was another advantage, more than she needed as she charged towards Anakin. She was getting closer, if she couldn’t tell in the force the bodies scattered through the halls would be an ample indication. The group that tried to ambush her from a side corridor was laughably obvious, she heard them almost before the force told her about them, and their fumbling efforts would have been no match for her even before she’d been to war. It wasn’t a battle, just slaughter.

Ahsoka let the last few retreat as she turned back towards her goal. Anakin was on the bridge, and temporarily at peace, the raging torrent of the force was calm. The way was clear, and she didn’t bother not to run.

The doors were shut and as she approached she could see that he’d once again not bothered with locks, melting his way in and slamming them to keep others out. It was odd that he hadn’t sensed her yet, but she had gotten much better at shielding, and surprising him would be more than fair after he let her think he was dead.

With a scream of tortured metal, she slid one of the blast doors open, just enough for her to fit through. Inside were more bodies, and a single dark shape, just turning to look at her.

She let her shields fall, the joy emanating from her was something she’d almost forgotten she could feel in the dark times, and she opened-

“Who are you?” The harsh drone shocked her as much as the words. The man, too short to be Anakin she realized with crushing despair, started to walk towards her, away from what he’d been doing in the command chair. His lightsaber leapt to his hand, but didn’t come alive, and she could feel his entire focus on her from behind his featureless mask.

She could feel his power still, leashed for the moment but only barely, and she could feel the nervousness beneath it. It was a dangerous place to be, frightened creatures lashed out, and she didn’t want to fight the man.

“Well? Are you going to tell me?” Ahsoka almost answered before shaking off the compulsion, it had been clumsy and now that she was alert she knew it wouldn’t touch her mind.

“That was rude.” She dropped her hands, not quite to her weapons but close enough.

“I was a good deal ruder to the last stranger with a lightsaber.” The discordant tones of the helmet made the mild statement into a threat. “What are you doing here? Who were you chasing?”

“This little troll called Adoy. He owes me.” The man heard the truth in her words, and almost immediately the danger receded, his attention changing from a burning light to something gentler.

“He claimed he’d keep a low profile.”

“If he’s the being I’m thinking of he could hardly do anything else.” There was a surrealistic element about the conversation, she could almost have been back in the temple making short jokes-

“Be careful with them, none of our set is especially tall.” His saber went back to his belt and he moved back towards the command chair. He hit two buttons and the ship shuddered, the sublight engines kicking on. “So who are you then? I’m Luke.”


	24. XXIV

  
Mara’s breaths were loud in her helmet, the filters buzzing as they scrubbed the air. The pirates had come to her as she’d expected, and in the pitch black of the Lucrehulk they’d fallen. Her carbine was warm against her back, but it wasn’t the weapon her hands kept drifting to. Anakin’s saber had been alive, it had moved with a mind of its own as she cut through the thieves, almost dragging her to the next fight. It was quiet now, she was tempted to think it was satisfied.  
  
The chirp of an incoming comm focused her and she moved closer to the wall before transmitting twice to show she was listening.  
  
“My ship is moving, but we’ve got a complication.” Luke’s voice was guarded. She didn’t wait for him to elaborate before she started to head to the bridge, if the other ships were going hers would be too. Garm asked the question for her anyway.  
  
“What’s the problem Rogue One?” At least someone was using call signs, she could trust Garm for that.  
  
“There’s a former student of Adoy’s here with me.” That wasn’t a complication, but a problem. Their cover story wasn’t one, and a Jedi would almost certainly expose their ignorance. Yoda hadn’t, but the green troll was an enigmatic as Luke had said. They couldn’t count on similar forbearance from another.  
  
“The  _Liberator_  will be landing in five minutes. Have the student come over to the  _Peregrine_  to confirm their story.”  
  
“You’ve already named your ship?” That was the question Luke asked? His priorities were skewed. Nonetheless as Mara reached the bridge and started the engines she pulled up the ship’s registry and edited a single field.  
  
“I wasn’t going to leave it as the  _Pride of Gerson_  and I’ve had weeks up here.” That wasn’t the worst ship name, it was certainly inspired more confidence than the  _Inflexible_. “We should all be ready for hyperdrive in twenty. Slag anything in the hangers that you didn’t bring, we’re going to have enough trouble dealing with tracking devices without pirates showing up.”  
  
“As soon as we’re in formation I’ll bring her.” Part of Mara wanted to join them for the reunion, but the part of her that couldn’t fly through space without a ship resisted. She had a more immediate task, trying to find what station controlled the interior defenses.  
  
If felt like a waste to destroy the pirates’ crafts, but Garm was right. The risk of being discovered as they began the true refit outweighed any gains from the ships’ holds. The engines sent a vibration through the decks, and after she found the anti-boarding weapons the explosions in the hangars briefly joined them.  
  
“Rogue Two here, once the hyperdrive is warmed up the  _Chimera_  will be ready for the jump to lightspeed.” Luke’s choked gasp over the comms was exactly what she’d hoped for, and she could feel his shock.  
  
She could feel him across space, across a greater distance than she’d ever deliberately sought. It wasn’t just him she sensed. The force sang to her, shimmering constellations of life filled her mind. There was the concentration aboard the  _Liberator_  as it approached, Yoda’s presence burning among them like a star. Gerson was just beyond with its teeming cities, and further still the incredible overwhelming expanse of the galaxy, a million trillion lives connected and shining.  
  
Mara was slumped over the controls when she found herself, her gloved hands were clenched into fists and it took far more effort than it should to relax them. She almost turned up the mix of oxygen to force her head to clear, but the thought itself was enough to stir her into motion and to hear the increasingly panicked Luke almost shouting into her ears.  
  
“Sorry for the lapse, I was too busy imagining your reaction.” She doubted it would fool anyone, anyone who didn’t know her well at least, but she wasn’t going to admit to having a near breakdown from seeing the universe. It was hers, her gift, and she didn’t want to share the moment until she understood it, or until she wanted to.  
  
“Roger that Rogue Two, see you on the other side.” Garm’s voice was calming, he was a solid presence disconnected from mysticism. Mara clicked twice to answer, not trusting herself with more words, and began to go over the jump preparations. She had a job to do, a mission, and no matter what she wouldn’t leave one undone.  
  


* * *

  
Garm couldn’t believe they’d done it. He was sitting on the bridge of his personal Lucrehulk hanging in empty space far from the shipping lanes and he still couldn’t believe it. The droids trawling through the systems looking for backdoors and traps were pinging back at regular intervals, and the lack of alerts was uncanny. He was almost glad that there’d been some strangeness from the Jedi contingent, the slight mishaps helped him feel that the other shoe wasn’t about to drop.  
  
Master Yoda was occupied getting the rescued prisoners situated, but that was rapidly coming to a close. The  _Jade’s Fire_  had just returned meaning Mara was back, and Luke had been ensconced in a briefing room with their other new arrival. He wasn’t exactly annoyed that poor tradecraft had led to another Jedi finding them, but he wasn’t happy either. It wasn’t as if he was an expert in undercover operations, the closest he’d ever gotten was to be the captain of a ship ready to extract or explode a target, but even he wouldn’t make his alias Mrag, not just because it was unpronounceable.  
  
Still Jedi were incredible assets, and now they had four. He pulled up a recording of the battle as he waited, if it could even be called that. A single fighter had cut through a squadron, without ever being threatened. If that wasn’t enough the two of them had both singlehandedly cut their way through entire crews of pirates, entirely calmly.   
  
That made their evident nervousness about the upcoming meeting somewhat worrisome. It seemed like it should be entirely good news, they’d succeeded past all rational expectations and yet none of them showed the elation that they had over previous victories. Part of Garm wanted to simply blame it on Jedi strangeness, but his more pessimistic side made him holster a blaster as he walked towards the site of the meeting. He didn’t think it would matter much, he’d seen Luke and Mara fight, but every little bit helped.  
  
Neither of the two already present looked surprised as he entered, there was a strained silence in the room that he chose not to initially disturb as he sat at the head of the table. That drew a look from the newcomer, a frank appraisal. Normally he’d have chosen a less prominent position, recognizing the realities of their initial troika, but Luke and Mara had chosen him to lead. It was time for him to do that.  
  
“I’m Admiral Bel Iblis, formerly of Corellia, now of the Rebellion.” It was surprising how easy it was to shift back into formality. “It’s good to see another opponent of the Empire.”  
  
The Jedi, a tall Togruta, was inscrutable as she nodded slowly. “Call me Fulcrum, Admiral, and likewise.”  
  
His data pad blinked as Luke turned his head fractionally, Mara had just landed. She’d be up promptly knowing her, and it was even odds she’d beat Master Yoda. He arrived when he was needed, not always punctually. Apparently that was now as the doors hissed back open.  
  
“Master Yoda!” The Jedi surged to her feet, her serenity vanishing in a split second. “You’re really here!”  
  
“Indeed young Ahsoka.” The Jedi master leaned forward on his cane, studying their guest with a faint smile. “Or not so young anymore, you’ve grown.” There was an emphasis on the last word, more than Ahsoka’s towering height seemed to merit. “A victory today was, but your presence is a greater joy.”  
  
“Of course, but you’re alive! Is anyone else? Anakin, Obi Wan?” Garm shot a look at Luke who was looking equally uncomfortable at being present for the reunion. “I’ve had slicers looking, but this was the first time they’d found anyone, where have you been?”  
  
“Until the will of the force became clear, hiding and regaining my strength I was.” The way Ahsoka’s face fell as Yoda tried to dodge her question was heartbreaking, clearly the woman had hoped for another miracle. “Only recently have I rejoined the conflict against the Sith.”  
  
“We- I thought you were dead.”  
  
“The deception was necessary.” Yoda clambered into a seat, and Ahsoka sank into hers. “Sidious knew I escaped and searched for me. To hide from his notice, cutting myself off from all others was needed.”  
  
“Then why now? He’s not still looking?”  
  
“We’ve endeavored to draw his attention.” Luke spoke calmly, as if the Emperor’s enmity wasn’t worth worrying about. “The time has come to centralize opposition to his rule.”  
  
“Alright fine, but wait, who even are you?” Mara naturally chose that moment to arrive, her daughter trailing. “And you?” The redhead didn’t look happy at the interrogation, she was still clad in her armor weave and somehow managed to seem more threatening than normal.  
  
“Who do you think I am?” She waved a hand at her saber as she walked around the table to sit next to Luke, at least until Ahsoka burst to her feet, her chair falling to the floor behind her as her sabers leapt to her hands.  
  
“Where did you get that?” The Jedi’s voice was frozen as the room’s tension spiked. Luke was on his feet next to Mara, the little girl behind them.  
  
“I gave it to her.” Yoda’s voice was a whipcrack, all eyes turned to him. “She needed a weapon, and that one’s master could no longer wield it. Now sit, all of you.” Luke obeyed silently, but Mara and Ahsoka were more mutinous, before a hand from Luke and a look from Yoda drove them into their chairs. “All here have suffered thanks to the Sith, and discord among us will secure their victory. Stories and secrets will be told, but know that in our goals we are united.”  
  
“Thank you, Master Yoda.” Garm quickly tapped commands into his datapad, putting the status of their fleet into a hologram hoping the distraction would calm the room. “Our mission today was a success past all rational expectations.”  
  
Holograms of the three Lucrehulks floated over the table, their blue superstructures streaked with red showing systems that weren’t operational. “The  _Peregrine_ , the  _Chimaera_ , and” he couldn’t resist a raised eyebrow at the name Luke hadn’t changed, “the  _Ion Victory_  are all capable of navigation in both real space and hyperspace. The heavy weapon emplacements are present, and current projections indicate we’ll have them online within the day.”  
  
“How do the fabricators look?” Luke filled the silence, ignoring the tension. “The astromechs have performed well, but these ships need more specialized care than a hundred droids can provide.”  
  
“They’re working fine, but raw materials are going to be a concern quite quickly.” That had been one of the problems he’d spent the most time on, the logistics of three capital ships were a challenge even without the typically needed life support. “Once we get our systems back to one hundred percent we’ll have six months before onboard supplies begin to be depleted.”  
  
“What about reducing maintenance on non-critical and redundant systems?” Mara didn’t take her eyes off the Togruta as she asked. “We don’t need everything.”  
  
“Six months was with some judicious rationing, after that we’ll start to experience a real loss in combat power.”  
  
“Naturally battles will reduce the timeline further, yes?” Yoda’s claws were clicking on his datapad as he stared at the projections. “Vulture droids were never particularly robust, and using them will no doubt be costly in resources.”  
  
“Late war vulture droids and tri-fighters were more survivable, but in pitched battle they usually experienced losses greater than twenty percent even in victory.” The material budget curves he’d created all dropped far more quickly than Garm would like. “We can fight perhaps two engagements against a peer enemy before we’re limited to running away. Slowly.”  
  
“I don’t think we should limit ourselves to droid fighters.” No surprise coming from the best pilot Garm had ever seen. “Half the point of capturing these ships was to provide a nucleus, an accretion point for the various other groups we’ve encountered.”  
  
“Fighter strikes won’t have the impact we need without something greater.” In his weeks alone he’d had a lot of time to read and think about insurgency tactics. “We need visibility, and no matter times you go out in your A-wing it won’t compare to a world looking up and seeing Lucrehulks in orbit.”  
  
Ahsoka looked uncomfortable at the image, and he couldn’t blame her. For the entire Clone War, really since the Naboo incident, droid control ships were a terrifying enemy representing emotionless destruction. “Naturally we’ll be focused on systems that were members of the Confederacy, they’ll provide more fertile grounds for support in the shadow of our fleet where it has a slightly different image.”  
  
“Something to say you have, Ahsoka?” Yoda was looking at the Jedi, but whatever he saw Garm couldn’t see.  
  
The Togruta shifted in her seat, clearly uneasy. “The group I’m working with might be able to help on the resource front, depending on how complete the manufacturing facilities onboard are.”  
  
Garm pulled up the relevant schematics, they were extensive, showing none of the optimization nor frugality of a fully combat oriented ship. “We can make anything, with enough time, supplies, and hypermatter we could even build a capital ship.”  
  
She looked at the readouts carefully before coming to a conclusion. “We’ve been looking for a location to base our fighters, a few squadrons of mostly A-wings. I can bring this back to my leadership, and tell them-“ Here she stumbled, clearly unsure of just what to say. Once again Yoda stepped in.  
  
“Tell Bail Organa that I am here, and that  _my_ exile is over.”


	25. XXV

The interrogation level was screaming. Not literally, the walls were carefully soundproofed to prevent that, but to the Inquisitor the terror and pain were almost deafening. A Lord of the Sith was present, and even to the blind his incidental presence was oppressive. To those who were the focus of his malice there was no surcease from torment, no hope, and no escape except perhaps in death. He knew, and his skull ached with the memories of Vader’s wrath.   
  
Gerson’s administration was locked up or dead, the former head of their navy a wet smear on a wall that the housekeeping droids hadn’t dared approach. Anyone remotely in a position of power had been seized by the 501st and brought aboard the  _Perilous_ , the Inquisitor doubted that any would be leaving regardless of what was discovered. The Ubiqtorate was putting all records of the planet through a sieve, and he knew that the Third Brother was on the ground motivating them.  
  
Closing his eyelids over his implants he breathed in the dark side, the anger and despair a heady brew that he would turn to power. After what was simultaneously an eternity and minutes he felt a surge of danger, his eyes snapped open just as the Dark Lord strode from an interrogation chamber.  
  
“Inquisitor, with me.” Vader didn’t wait for a response as he stalked towards a turbolift, functionaries and torturers almost fleeing from his path. “This was the work of the Jedi you fought over Corellia. You are lucky I already took your eyes for your failure.” His fear swirled, and he brought it under his control with the certainty someday he would have his vengeance.   
  
“As you say Lord Vader.”  
  
“He has gained additional allies, more powerful ones.” The lift’s doors snapped open and Vader marched onto the bridge, the chatter of the officers going silent in an instant. “Your task shall be to trace Yoda’s path, to find what hole he emerged from.”  
  
“What resources will I have?” Even if Vader denied him all help he would do it. Yoda had led them to destruction, a millennium of blindness.  
  
“Your old ship, and do not squander it.” There was the slightest pressure on his throat, more of a suggestion than the merciless crushing it could be. “If he is moving there will be others, you cannot afford to be so profligate against threats such as these.” Vader turned away, looking towards the stars and the ships of his task force amongst them.  
  
“But,” and there was the iron grip as Vader whirled back, “remember that your lives, all your lives are a fair trade for Yoda or Kenobi.” The anger at the last name was impossible, Vader’s fury towered above any emotion the Inquisitor had ever even imagined. “If you lose them what I did to you before will be a pleasant memory.” Half the world went dark with a scream of tortured metal, if not for Vader’s grip on his throat the Inquisitor would have fallen to his knees with the pain. “I want them found, I want them before me, and I want them dead.” The bulkhead slammed against his back, the force pinning him to the durasteel. “Begin immediately.”  
  


* * *

Bail looked exhausted, and Ahsoka’s words weren’t going to help at all. “Sorry, it’s been a long day and Leia- well toddlers.” He stretched and stood from his desk practically staggering as he walked towards an urn of caf. The dark liquid steamed as he poured a cup, and he looked over his shoulder towards her. “Would you like any?”  
  
“Can’t, I don’t have the enzymes.” Ahsoka couldn’t be annoyed at the distraction, it gave her more time to gather her thoughts about why she’d demanded a face to face meeting despite the risks of Alderaan.   
  
“I’ve got others then..” Bail halfheartedly reached for a cabinet, “or even something stronger?”  
  
“Not tonight, not yet at least.” It was tempting though.  
  
“Well then, let’s get to it.” The senator already looked better, although she could still feel his lack of energy. “What yanked you back from the Outer Rim?”  
  
“Yoda.” Bail’s face ran through a series of emotions, finishing with shock. “He’s alive.”  
  
“Yoda?” She nodded, “Master Yoda?”  
  
“The one and only.” His turmoil was a match for her own, but she’d had a long flight alone to begin to come to terms with it. “He’s been in hiding, but he said to tell you that his exile was over.” She let that sink in a little, Bail’s caf was forgotten in his hands.  
  
“How did you find him? I thought you were searching for places to base our A-wings? Did you just run into him?”  
  
“I was, the lead on cannons didn’t pan out by the way, but I’ve had data trawlers out for Jedi that weren’t confirmed dead.” And a few that were, but Ahsoka hadn’t had the heart to remove them.   
  
“He’s a Jedi Master though, the Jedi Master.” Bail was taking it about as well as she had. “How did he let himself get picked up by a bunch of slicers?”  
  
“He reused an alias, one from four hundred years ago.” She gave him a second to recover, on its own that wasn’t too terrible, “It was Adoy.” The caf was now a spreading pool on his desk as Bail seemed stricken.   
  
“You’re joking. I’m dreaming.” He was doodling with the liquid, sketching swirls and loops. “I’ve been hallucinating thanks to sleep deprivation and I’m going to wake up with Breha.”  
  
“He’s joined up with the group that destroyed the ships over Corellia, which previously consisted of two Jedi I’ve never heard of, their daughter, and a random Admiral.” She slid a datastick towards him, only using a little of the force to make sure it stayed dry. “Since then they’ve added a few thousand former separatists, three Lucrehulks, and they undying enmity of quite a few terrible people.”  
  
“This wasn’t at all what I imagined he’d be doing.” He recovered enough to plug in the stick, showing the list of files, foremost among them a recorded message from the Admiral.  
  
“Admiral Garm Bel Iblis was in nominal command, but the hierarchy seemed pretty flat.” He’d taken the meeting over, but that had felt like a new development to her. “Again, I’d never heard of him, nor the other Jedi, Luke and Mara Jade.” She displayed their holograms, she’d had a camera running for the entire meeting, and Bail studied them intently.   
  
“You said they had a daughter?” The younger Mara, it must be a family name, leapt into the air next to them. “Quite a resemblance.”  
  
“The man, Luke, was powerful. At first I thought he was Anakin.” The pain was less with repetition, but the hope had burned. Bail grimaced in response.  
  
“He’s at least as old Anakin would have been, from my understanding of the Order that sort of power would have translated into prominence correct?”  
  
Ahsoka wanted to shake her head, but had to nod. “Maybe not in normal times, but in the war? More than it should have.”  
  
Bail immediately grasped her meaning. “So you not knowing them-“  
  
“They weren’t there.” She’d had a lot of time to think about it.  
  
“Because of their child?”  
  
“It would explain why they left, but she’s younger than the Empire.” That burned a little, she knew that other Jedi had felt attachments, but they had had a duty.  
  
“Why now then?” Bail had wiped away the coffee and was now mechanically buffing the desk with slow strokes of a cloth. “And what made Yoda join them?”  
  
“Maybe just their visibility? If I could feel them he did too.” It seemed like there had to be more, but she’d barely been able to focus before she left their little task force. Now she was wishing she’d asked far more questions.  
  
“Something to discover, and you’re our best hope to do so.” He tapped a control on his desk and it projected the three ships, their hulls shining in the light of some nameless star. “Can we trust them? It feels strange to say such a thing about Master Yoda, but these are strange times.”  
  
“They’re against the Emperor if nothing else. That was clear.” Ahsoka wanted to stop there, but the feeling of slight betrayal wasn’t enough to make her forget her mission. “The Lucrehulks would solve an awful lot of problems. A mobile base with the capacity to repair and build, it’s all we wanted.”  
  
“It’ll raise our profile.” He was turning the idea over. “And once we do that it won’t go down again easily.”  
  
“We’re not here to keep a  _low profile_.” Her vehemence surprised her almost as much as it did Bail. “I think the question is if our helping them will speed the downfall of the empire, or not.”  
  
“And that’s an easy one?” Bail didn’t respond to her sudden passion, showing the result of too much time in the Senate. “We have resources, but they’re from before the Empire. Once they’re gone I can’t support nearly as much, the Empire watches too closely.”  
  
“Those fighters will be gone in a year without a safe base and supplies.”  
  
“And the Lucrehulks could be gone in days.” Bail stood, going for more caf now that his initial burst of energy was gone. “The fleets that broke the Confederacy have only grown stronger, and we both remember how many ships they had.”  
  
“You’re not wrong.” Almost against her will Ahsoka found herself arguing for the Rebellion. “But think about Corellia. How do you think a group that started with an attack on a civilian yard killing thousands will use Lucrehulks?”  
  
“Master Yoda will restrain them.” His statement was more of a question.  
  
“Maybe, but will a bunch of renegade Jedi listen to him? They can’t be too concerned with what he says given they vanished to break the code.” She forced her voice closer to a Jedi’s calm. “If we send the squadrons there we’ll be in on the ground floor, we’ll have influence, some pull to restrain their actions.”  
  
Bail was silent in response, contemplating his caf as if it held the answers, and he kept his emotions under tight control as he thought. Ahsoka felt her own passion drain away, the manic energy receding. At last Bail finished staring into his mug. “Let’s sleep on it. But the way I’m leaning Mon Mothma won’t be happy.”


	26. XXVI

“She’s gotten the hang of it pretty quickly.” The  _Peregrine’s_  immense cargo holds were being put to use. There were plans for barracks and dormitories, firing ranges, even storage for items needed in smaller quantities than the annual demand of an Outer Rim planet’s population. Until the lights had been repaired the spaces had been too large to appreciate, now the massive steel caverns were illuminated and active.   
  
Garm had delegated the design of the living accommodations to Commander Alanna Ving, one of the former Separatist officers, and she’d taken to the task with gusto. After years of deprivation in the mining camps the freed prisoners might be expected to be satisfied with the bare minimum, but on the scales of the Trade Federation fabricators relative luxury for thousands were just as easy as the essentials. Equipment for hydroponic gardens was being produced along with uniforms and weapons and the morale improvements were worth the cost. Simply having a goal past surviving the next shift underground had given the prisoners a new life, despite the dramatically greater difficulty of overthrowing the Empire.  
  
They were soldiers though, and the first of many. Ving was creating the foundations for something more than commandos, and far earlier than the Rebellion had coalesced in their galaxy. She had been the one to make an obstacle course, and while she’d meant it for training it had turned into a playground for Mara.  
  
“I don’t remember the first time I had to climb a cargo net, but I’m sure she’s done it before.” Luke and Mara watched the little girl clamber up the wall, an almost blinding smile on her face. “I always wanted to stay and mess around, but the trainers always kept to a tight schedule.”  
  
“I guess it’s what you’re used to, I only encountered these in the Alliance and they were miserable.” Even his position as the leader of Rogue Squadron hadn’t spared him from the necessities of the basic commando training. His weak grasp of the force had made them simple, he’d set the records, but the icy pools of mud had been awful. Looking back at them they’d been good practice, but at the time he’d been convinced it was just Leia’s idea of a joke.   
  
“It sounds like you were terrible at them.” Mara seemed inordinately pleased with the idea. “I can’t imagine your childhood spent eating womp rats and making sandcastles really helped you there.”  
  
“Like learning which fork you should never use on Etti IV made a difference?”  
  
“Indicating your willingness to engage in insider trading is extremely gauche, even for the Corporate Sector.” The Coruscanti accent she normally lapsed into became a parody of itself as she lectured. “It’s best to leave that until the digestifs come out, the presence of alcohol always the idea to be waved off as a poor joke if needed.”  
  
“Thanks, Threepio.” That merited a raised eyebrow.  
  
“Please, I’ve forgotten more about manners than that monstrosity has ever known.”  
  
“That’s something you really want to brag about?”  
  
“It’s not bragging if it’s true.”  
  
“I’m not convinced it’s even worth admitting.”  
  
“Why would it be embarrassing to be incredibly well educated and sophisticated?” There was a light in Mara’s eyes that Luke wanted to keep seeing. “We can’t all be from Outer Rim dustballs where the height of class is asking for water instead of just taking it.”  
  
He nodded in agreement with faux solemnity. “It’s a constant struggle.”  
  
“Luckily I’m polite enough not to mention your occasional brutish and reflexive lunges towards anything remotely damp.”  
  
“I am extremely lucky.” Luke stepped closer, and her face tilted up towards his.  
  
“How lucky do you think you are?”  
  
“Right now?” His arms were around her loosely, it wasn’t the first time, but this was something more than dancing as a cover and they both knew it.  
  
“Unless you think you’re going to get luckier.” The joke didn’t quite land, there was the slightest bit of nervousness in her voice, or maybe he was just projecting.  
  
“It’s hard to see how I could.”  
  
“Is it really?” She shifted against him, and once again he realized she was beautiful.  
  
A thump and a sharp cry from the obstacle course ended the moment. Mara spun in his arms to look for her younger self and found her clutching her elbow at the base of the climbing wall. He let her go as she went to check on the girl and he couldn’t help but wish she was a bit better at bouldering.  
  


* * *

  
The day/night schedule was off on the ships. The  _Lucrehulks_ had naturally been set to the Gerson standard which matched that of most of the crew, but Luke preferred the standard day. It wasn’t a big deal, if it got too bad Luke would take circadian modifiers to adjust his body’s clock, but it was enough to make the daily status meeting feel as if it were far later at night than it was. Twenty one hundred was a civilized time, and it let the night shift get a handle on things, but after something of a confusing day he would have liked to be free to figure things out.

Mara was sitting next to him as she usually did, but she was never quite so distracting, it was almost a relief when Garm arrived and took his seat at the head of the table. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen let’s get to it. Commander Ving, what’s the status of the census?”

The former Separatist had a long face, and the time in the mines had aged her prematurely, sending gray streaking through her dark hair. She had a hint of a smile as she projected her report for the rest of the room to see.

“Of the eleven thousand rescued two thirds were enlisted in Confederate forces. The remainder is primarily political prisoners, although there are some actual criminals we’re keeping under watch among the population, along with others who let their behavior degenerate to match their surroundings.” Her mouth twisted briefly before shifting to a more neutral line. “Thanks to the use of droids as the primary fighting force the majority of the officers served in the rear echelons, staff and logistics postings.”

“Are there any with fleet or ship command experience?”

Ving nodded as she answered. “Two  _Lucrehulk_ captains, one of which fought over Coruscant.” Neither Yoda nor Garm looked happy at the news, they’d of course been on the other side of the battle that was in some ways both the last victory and defeat of the Republic. 

“I’ll review their files.” There was a chime as Ving sent the documents to Garm’s station, he only glanced down before continuing. “For the civilians, you’ve identified those with useful skills?” Ving nodded, “We’re going to need to get some sort of organization for them. The military will follow the lead of the officers as long as we seem competent, but four thousand people who were willing enough to argue their way into prison won’t be quite as easy to deal with.”

“Speak with them, I will.” Yoda’s chair was elevated, putting him on an even level with the others despite his height. “A council perhaps, with a delegate to this group to voice their concerns.”

“They’re idealists.” Jope Kothari was another of the former prisoners, a tall man with one artificial eye he’d been happy to replace after the ionite killed his old one. “Some were protesting tyranny, others are more concerned with the survival of brain worms and charter lice than anything reasonable. I don’t think they’ll provide utility.”

It was probably a testament that they needed some non-military views, because Luke could feel everyone but Yoda sympathizing with the opinion. He had encountered his share of annoying politicians and activists, but the Rebellion couldn’t just be a military organization. They would fight, and fight extremely well he was sure, but at some point, they needed to provide a compelling alternative to Palpatine’s New Order. Garm Bel Iblis and a bunch of soldiers claiming to be kinder and better wouldn’t be enough. 

“Their utility isn’t strictly the reason to include them. We need to sway the population to see that what we’re offering is worth another bloody struggle.” He could feel Yoda’s approval, he’d come to understand that the old master valued diplomacy far more than their first meeting and lessons all those years ago had shown. “The Emperor’s promises can be seductive, and if we stay as merely a fighting force we’ll justify his actions.”

“Hearts and minds?” Kothari was skeptical. “From what I saw with you Jedi even you didn’t trust logic and reason half as much as your lightsabers. In the end we’ll need warships more than words.”

“Without words these ships will be end as cold tombs floating in the dark.” Garm’s voice was firm as he ended the argument. “That moves us easily to the next topic. Captain Solari, have you finished refining the resource projections?”

The Duros nodded, his red eyes blinking slowly. “Indeed Admiral. Without increasing our operational tempo we have consumables appropriate for one hundred and forty standard days.” Keeping ten thousand people alive and happy took more supplies than five.

“How much time would we get if we filled our bunkers to the maximum?” The Duros raised an eyebrow, or as close to the gesture as a species without eyebrows could manage, but after a few seconds of adjusting his model he had an answer.

“Using only the designated storage areas four-hundred days. If we filled the hangars to maximum capacity ten times that. Compared to the scale of these ships our demands are slight, keeping the reactors going is our limiting factor.”

“Excellent, thank you captain. Acquiring resources in bulk will be our first mission, before the Empire has time to realize and react to our needs. Begin formulating a list of possible targets with the volume we require. As soon as you’ve identified locations my agents will acquire more intelligence in preparation for a full-scale raid.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Anyone else have anything?” Around the table the four other Separatists were silent, they tended to defer to Ving. Alanna did have something more to say.

“We need more than just supplies, we don’t have the population needed to fight a galactic government. Is there any reason we can’t replicate the Gerson raid on other prison camps?”

“It did work well, and it would force the Empire to devote more resources to them.” Kothari seemed to like the idea. “It may be self-serving, but anyone from those camps can be counted on to oppose the Empire.”

“We chose Gerson for a reason, other planets might not be as susceptible without the necessities imposed on the guards by ionite extraction.” Ving and Kothari accepted that, but Luke could tell the idea had taken hold amongst the other Separatists and it seemed Garm could too. “Start picking targets, and remember we can’t be seen as simply Separatist or Confederate holdouts when you’re making your selections.”

Garm didn’t say it, but everyone in the room had to be thinking that adding former members of the Republic would also reduce the massive majority that the Separatists currently represented. “We shall shortly be hosting a fighter wing from another faction opposing the Empire. With the right choice we could vastly increase our available striking force by enlisting them.” Ideally practicality would sway them more than ideology and factionalism, but until the Rebellion truly coalesced they’d need to balance the different groups. If nothing else what he and Mara had created would probably never be called the Alliance to Restore the Republic.


	27. XXVII

  
Waiting was the worst part of any operation. Luke was next to her, looking and feeling annoyingly serene as he meditated. He must have noticed her attention though, he shifted up from the slight slump that was all their armor would allow.

“I liked your last black outfit better.” Mara glanced down at herself, like everyone she was in armor weave with strike plates made from some composite that had been developed and forgotten about by the Trade Federation. It wasn’t quite black, there was an almost oily sheen on the plates that hinted at iridescence, but she was more than fine with it.

“If you wanted me to go on a raid in a cocktail dress you only had to ask.” She made sure their comms were set to private, she didn’t want the forty other soldiers in the transport to hear her. “Unless you meant what I wore to the beach?” Luke flushed satisfyingly, or she could feel his tinge of embarrassment and something more behind his opaque helmet.

“That would be more of a distraction than I could handle.” He leaned against her and turned his palm up, despite herself she found her hand grasping it. “There’s been a lot of distractions lately.”

Mara nodded, the overt contact changing their normal dynamic. “It’s been busier than I’d thought, getting all of this ready to start rolling.”

“We knew that it was going to be an awful lot of work when we started.” She knew that his hand could bend durasteel but she gave it an encouraging squeeze anyway. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do other things.”

“Just what are you suggesting Skywalker?” She wasn’t going to make this easy for him. “Because I don’t think I’m that kind of girl.”

His voice was light as if he wasn’t also aware of the change. “Against my better judgement I like the kind of girl you are.”

“Smooth.” She yanked her hand free. “Is that what you said to all the rebel girls?”

“Just the ones who vowed to kill me.”

“Were there a lot? I sort of feel like there would be.” Her shoulder was still touching his.

“More than I’d like.”

“Just a tip, your compliments need work.”

“I’d say yours do too, except I’ve never actually gotten one.”

“Don’t beg, it’s not attractive.”

“That makes one of us.” She felt the moment before it arrived, and couldn’t resist the annoyance as the lights came up in the transport. “ _Distractions._ ” At least Luke was just as irritated, there was a venom in his voice that she’d rarely heard before. “When we get back-“

“Sir, we’re five minutes out, any last orders?” Captain Lyman was lucky he didn’t have the force, the weight of Luke’s displeasure was crushing before he reined himself in.

“We’re professionals, we’ve all done this before.” It was funny to hear Luke speaking for an audience. By the time she’d met him he’d lost most of his Outer Rim accent, but the Rebellion’s strategists must have felt that it added to his image. “Remember your training, don’t do anything stupid, and we’ll be back on the  _Peregrine_  in an hour.” Luke glanced at her to see if she had anything to add and she had to resist asking if he had gotten all the vaporators calibrated. “This raid will let the Empire know that we’re not just hanging out in the black, that we’re not going to forget what they’ve done and that they can’t forget about us.”

Mara could feel the soldiers’ emotions smoothing out, their nerves calming as they started to methodically give their equipment final checks. She joined them, making sure her carbine was fully charged, her holdout was ready to be drawn, her knives, she gave Luke a glare as he watched with amusement.

“It’s not going to be so funny when your blaster doesn’t work.” He patted his saber, and he didn’t need to talk for her to know what he was thinking. “I like having more than one ally, and to be able to fight people at slightly more than an arm’s length.”

“There’s some value in just using a light saber.”

“And it’s more valuable to survive.”

“I already feel like a knock off stormtrooper in this armor, using a blaster too?” He shrugged self-consciously.

“Well suck it up, there’s more sartorial options than robes and flight suits.” For an instant she let her shields lower, letting him know what she thought of some things he’d worn. “And about this armor, I bet you’ll like it a lot more after we get back.” The lights in the transport went red as the mission clock started in their HUDs.

“Ten seconds to insertion!” The shouting loadmaster didn’t seem to realize that they all had comms integrated into their helmets.

“And why will I like it more?” She could feel his attention shifting to the imminent combat, away from her.

“Five seconds!” Mara tried something new, pushing an image to Luke.

“It’s too tight for me to wear anything under it.”

The ship shuddered as they rammed their target, and the explosive bolts blew open a path into a corridor. It wasn’t without some satisfaction that she bounded up towards the door, leaving a half-stunned Luke behind her.

* * *

  


The two Jedi seemed to vanish as they plunged into the smoke with inhuman speed. Captain Lyman stood, with a wave and a shout he sent his troops after them. A month of drills and training had scraped the rust of the mines from all of them, and even more valuable had been the hope that their cause wasn’t dead, that they hadn’t been left to die miles beneath the surface of an alien world.

It might be crazy to oppose a government that spanned the galaxy with only three ships and ten thousand sentients, a decent chunk of them weren’t even soldiers, but he knew everyone on the mission felt the same way he did. His platoon had been with him since the war started, and the return to active duty had brought life back to all of them.

“Fireteam Jenth and Krill, set up and hold this position!” The heavy weapons they carried wouldn’t be much use in the cramped corridors of the space station, but they were used to static deployments. “Esk, watch the technical team, everybody else, blasters up and stay sharp!” They knew what they were doing, they’d known for the whole eight-hour transfer, but combat could make even the simplest things hard to remember.

“The Jedi are going to clear the way as much as they can and will draw the station security!” He didn’t need to shout, their equipment was beyond top of the line, but there were expectations. “We are doing the important work, the work that’s going to keep us all supplied, and then we’re going to pull the Jedi out of whatever trouble they’ve found and go home!” That got a shout of approval as they passed the first signs of the Jedi, two dead guards each with a neat little hole between their eyes and their blasters still holstered.

Lyman marked them down on his wrist computer, information was always valuable even if it wasn’t immediately useful. The container yard they were raiding was technically a military facility, but there was only a brigade for the entire planet. If there was even a company on the station he’d be surprised, prepared, but still surprised.

The layout hadn’t changed from the Techno Union days, only the paint job, and they saw more guards as they reached the control center. Once again the damage was minimal, if it weren’t for the bodies the room would look untouched. “Aurek, Besh, push out to the next intersections and hold them, stay alert.”

The technical team, if you could call a bunch of logistics officers that, were milling around squeamish at the sight of blood. “Karking hells, what did you think we were going to be doing?” He pulled one of them to the main console, let go long enough to throw the corpse of an Imperial to the ground from his chair before pushing the officer down into it. “We need you to start routing cargo so when the fleet shows up it’s ready to be loaded. In other words, do your job.”

The Arkanian looked like he would have gone paler if he wasn’t already stark white, but sitting at a computer station seemed to calm him. He flipped several switches and started barking orders to the rest of his team, and Lyman moved back to let him do his work. It was time to report in any case.

Two button pushes patched him into their landing craft’s long range communications, and a warm tone informed him he was connected. “Peregrine this is Raid Actual, do you copy?”

The response was immediate. “Good copy Raid Actual. What’s your status?”

“We’ve taken the station’s bridge, we’re ready to commence operations.”

“Excellent, ensure that all weapon systems onboard are under your control. The A-wings are jumping in first and we’d prefer that they don’t run into too much excitement.”

“Roger that Peregrine.” He muted the conversation before passing on the orders. He knew that his men knew their business, but he could be forgiven a little micromanaging. One more question came to mind and he switched his comms back on. “Peregrine, do you have your jump coordinates so we can begin vectoring cargo?”

“In the absence of opposition, we’re conforming to the plan Raid Actual.”

He could hear the faint rebuke in the response, so he only clicked twice to signal acknowledgement. Everything had gone too smoothly so far, not that he wanted things to go wrong, but standing around doing nothing was far more nerve wracking than battle.

The sudden blare of an alarm was almost calming, as if the universe was finally correcting their run of good luck, before he realized it was just signifying the arrival of the A-wing squadrons. They swept into orbit, or two of them did with one diving towards the planet. There was a small navy base on the surface, and their first warning of the strike would hopefully be blaster cannons impacting.

The alarm got even louder before someone managed to turn it off as the three Lucrehulks burst out of hyperspace in a blur of pseudo-motion. Their cargo claws were opening as the station started lobbing containers towards them. 

The empire hadn’t changed the automated systems, and they recognized the Lucrehulks. The sliced orders would send megatons of cargo to their ships with just the push of a button, and by the time anyone was able to react they’d be long gone from Letto III.

* * *

  
Luke had never been so eager to get off a planet. They’d set charges throughout the station, and as soon as the last containers were on their way they’d destroy it, leaving the Empire with nothing but twisted metal.

The strike team was back aboard the landing craft, and there was an infectious confidence among them that was entirely deserved. It was hard to think of many missions that had accomplished so much with so few, and even the ones that did were the product of years of work. For most observers the rebellion had appeared from nothing in months and now they had capital ships fully stocked for war with allies across the galaxy. Not many, but Alderaan and Ryloth were technically across the galaxy from each other.

What he and Mara- she seemed to sense that he was thinking about her, and even under her helmet he could sense her grin. The thought of what else was under her armor was enough to distract him from the sensation of the ship taking off and the echoes of the explosions that he felt dimly through the force. 

The flight to the  _Peregrine_  stretched interminably as Mara kept her shields up, not giving him even the slightest hint of what she was thinking. After what she’d sent and the link that they’d fallen into during combat the absence was jarring, he didn’t know how he’d be able to last through the debrief without it.

Actually- “Good work team! We’ll have a full debrief tomorrow morning but unless you get further orders enjoy the victory tonight.” He controlled their schedule. The excitement from the troops as they set down in the hangar bay couldn’t compare to his own. The men filed off the craft leaving just him and Mara. He undid the latches on his neck and gave his helmet the slight twist and lift needed to free it. The sudden influx of the transport’s cold air was a welcome change from the constant pressure of the armor’s life support. 

“What would everyone think if they knew Luke Skywalker was abusing his command privileges for personal reasons?” Mara’s voice was harsh through the external speakers as he stepped towards her. “It’s not the behavior expected of a Hero of the Rebellion.” He rested his hands on her shoulders before moving them in to release her helmet.

“They’d think I was crazy.” Mara shifted, letting him remove the black shell and spill her red hair down her back. The helmet dropped after it, clanging on the deck plates as she stepped closer into his arms.

“Who doesn’t?” Her smile was bright, but there was something more behind it, a recognition of what they were finally doing. “But as long as we’re doing crazy things, want to help me take the rest of my armor off?”

Luke leaned in, moving slowly towards what they both wanted, half afraid it was just a dream. She tasted like mint, the same toothpaste that she stocked on the Fire, and after a long moment he knew he’d found something that could equal flying.

“Really farmboy?” Mara’s glare was balanced by the blush that matched her hair. “Equals?”

He stole another kiss before reaching down to grab her hand. “Let’s get the armor off and you can show me how wrong I am.”

She laughed as she tugged him from the transport. “I’m pretty incredible, but I’m not sure if even I can fully show you that.” This time she kissed him, nipping his lower lip as she darted back. “But I’m willing to try a few times.”


	28. XXVIII

Mara’s sheets were softer than his. It shouldn’t have surprised him, he knew she had a taste for the finer things, but he hadn’t let himself think about her bed. He hadn’t let himself think about a lot of things, but she was sleeping next to him just the same. Part of Luke wanted to stay there, not to let go of her until people wouldn’t stop banging on the door to get them out, but he’d never been good at sleeping in.  
  
“Can’t you think quietly at least?” Mara’s voice was raspy, and her accent was pronounced. “I know I did all the work, but you can at least pretend to be tired.”  
  
He pulled her closer and pressed a kiss to the back of her head. She shifted languorously, her body was warm against his, then she sat bolt upright. “What time is it?”  
  
“Oh nine hundred,” She was already vanishing towards the fresher as he spoke, an alluring flash of red and white.  
  
“What are you waiting for? We’re late!” Her voice carried over the sound of the spraying water through the open door he couldn’t help but view as an invitation.  
  
“For what? We set our own schedules.” Luke got out of bed anyway, some things weren’t to be missed and Mara was all of them.  
  
“Training, everyone else thinks we’ve been doing this all along.”  
  
“We were on a mission yesterday, who’s going to expect us out too early?” Steam was wafting from the shower and Luke couldn’t stop himself from moving towards the warmth.  
  
Mara turned the field holding the water in from opaque to transparent, revealing the spray shooting down around her. “For some reason I think getting ready is going to take a bit longer than usual this morning.”

* * *

  
Garm leaned back in his chair and couldn’t help but enjoy his changed circumstances. Imperial black sites weren’t the most comfortable, and the  _Jade’s Fire_  had been an incredibly welcome improvement. Mara’s ship was just a hair short of decadent in some respects, he’d never heard of the brand of her caf machine but as soon as he could he was buying three for himself, but her ship wasn’t his.

The  _Peregrine_  was. He’d spent a month on the Lucrehulk by himself with a hundred droids. A month with air and power in only a single room as they slowly suborned its systems and prepared to take it over, and he’d never felt as free. Before he’d taken command of her he’d been living on the Jedi’s charity, a valued partner but a subordinate. He didn’t know why they’d picked him. Luke might have been willing to trust blindly in the Force’s whims but he was sure Mara would have done more investigation. It didn’t matter now, for the first time in years he was in control of his own destiny and he wasn’t going to allow anything to change that.

He gazed out of the conference room’s windows towards the atrium as he waited for his officers to arrive, appreciating the changes to the old battleship. The  _Peregrine_  had been designed for Neimoidians by Neimoidians. They’d of course recognized other species would use them, but there was the occasional touch, like the too wide and low corridors, that would strike any near human as distinctly alien. The new crew had torn up a lot and built more in an effort to make the battleships more comfortable. If things went as they planned they’d be aboard them for years to come. 

The atrium was his favorite touch, Yoda had pushed for it and it had been overwhelmingly popular during the votes. It was an open expanse, cylindrical perhaps forty meters across and about that tall. Delicate scaffolding crossed it, and from them vines descended to meet trees rising from the floor. He’d seen the plants Yoda started with, potted seedlings pulled from the muck of Dagobah, but in a display of power that still awed him the diminutive alien had somehow coaxed them to grow and span the vast divides.

Fountains and streams burbled from one level to the next, artificial gravity freeing the water from traditional constraints. One of the rescued prisoners had been an architect, a committed pacifist but she was almost desperate to help and the atrium showed the results of her efforts. It was a triumph, Garm was far from artistic but just looking at the still unfinished chamber brought a calm and focus that was hard to find elsewhere. He wasn’t the only one to think so, it was a popular spot for crew members to spend breaks, although he felt some of them came to see other things than interior decorating.

The door to his left hissed open and he looked away from the window to see Commander Ving enter, flanked by Master Yoda.

“Good morning master, commander.”

“Admiral.” Ving’s greeting was as ever scrupulously correct, the courtesy of the military academies never truly left their graduates. Yoda only nodded as he walked around the table before assuming his customary position close to the window.

The others filtered slowly in, Captain Solari looking haggard as he brought up the rear. Thanks to his aptitude the Duros had become the de facto quartermaster and sorting out the megatons of cargo they’d taken from Letto III was straining him. The reward for good work was more work as ever and being too well supplied was the sort of problem Garm would take every day.

Holograms flickered into life as the captains of the other Lucrehulks joined the meeting, something Garm wasn’t too fond of. He knew Kothari decently well, it was why he’d picked him despite his lack of direct experience, but their group needed to be welded together by more than just an antipathy for the Empire. Bonds of friendship were a thin reed to rely on, but in the absence of years of tradition they were the best they could hope for. 

The absence of Luke and Mara still took him by surprise. They hadn’t made a secret of their intentions, both of them were supremely capable and lethal operatives, but it threw him that they were willing to cede power both to him and Yoda after being in charge for almost the entire time they’d known him. He couldn’t necessarily argue with their conclusions. Placing them in command roles was a waste of their talents, but it was strange not to see them sitting next to each other, responding to the things that others were thinking before they spoke. Yoda at least was able to restrain himself from accidentally reading minds, something that made the former Separatists and Garm far more comfortable.

“Alright, we’ve all got things to do. Let’s go around the room. Commander, what’s the status of our rebuilds?” He’d read the executive summary she’d prepared, but keeping his entire staff in the loop was the point of the meeting. The hierarchy was almost flat beneath him, something he was still working on addressing, but if things went badly anyone in the room could be the next to fill his chair. Compartmentalizing wouldn’t be wise until they had more potential compartments.

“We’ve replaced the accommodations for ninety percent of the crew, the remainder is primarily those with more exotic needs.” Garm nodded as he looked at her chart, most species could get along pretty easily with the human baseline but a methane atmosphere was more problematic. 

“Keep going then, the little things matter. How about our new allies?”

“We’ve constructed dorms near the hangars for the A-wing squadrons, but once again I’d prefer to house them with our crews. Their current arrangements represent a near doubling in cost, to say nothing of the issues they bring for damage control.” It was one of Ving’s pet issues, and Garm couldn’t help but agree. It had been the cost to get Organa onboard though. For some reason he seemed to think they’d just take his fighters and intern his pilots. Keeping the pilots close to their ships had been a compromise, and Ving continuing to hammer it would hopefully persuade Organa to relax it. Based on the face of Colonel Sidor, the group commander, it wasn’t going to work.

“We’ll have to assess that as we continue Commander.” She took that for the dismissal it was and changed topics.

“The training grounds and shooting ranges are operational,” her eyes swept the room. “Please ensure that you and your men participate in the mandatory training.” Garm had to restrain a smirk at the grimaces from the others. None of them had joined the Navy to mess around with blasters.

“Thank you for the update Commander. Captain Solari, how are things on your end?”

The Duros startled a little at being called on, his grey skin looked almost sallow. “We’ve seized supplies sufficient for three years of operations. Fuel once again is our limit, followed by certain isotopes needed for replacements of high wear components.”

“Can we begin droid production?” Captain Kothari wasn’t afraid to ask what everyone was thinking. “We need additional striking power, and we won’t be able to rescue half as many soldiers as we can simply make.”

“There are shortages of some materials, doonium chief amongst them, but I see nothing preventing us from filling out the fleet’s garrisons and wings.” Around the room that drew excitement, and a stony look from Colonel Sidor. He was alone in that, Garm had had months to come to terms with the idea of using his former enemy’s weapons. 

“Excellent news captain, we all appreciate-“ The Duros wasn’t looking at him, for a second he thought the man was more exhausted than he’d realized with the rudeness before he saw what caught the alien’s eyes.

Luke and Mara were outside the window, dancing through the atrium’s upper reaches as they dueled. The way the two of them moved was uncanny, he’d seen it half a hundred times but something about it still made the hair on his neck raise. He could tell they weren’t really trying in their bout. Lazy was the wrong word for their lightning quick strikes and dodges, but the very fact he could see them showed they were only warming up. 

They were relaxed, no doubt happy to have another successful mission behind them as they idly made ten meter standing jumps. He couldn’t hear the thrum of their blades through the window, it was rated for full vacuum, but he could see Mara shout something that was enough to make Luke start trying.

The blond blurred, his saber a streak of green as he flung himself at his partner who twisted away after batting his strike into open air. Neither seemed to care about the hard ground far beneath them as for an instant they stayed in one spot trading blows. The deadlock, if two heartbeats of furious and stationary battle could be called that ended in an instant, Mara leapt and Luke followed. 

He couldn’t tell how long the duel lasted after that but it ended with Luke holding both sabers over a smirking Mara. He gave her a quick peck as he pulled her up, odd he wasn’t normally so demonstrative. The instant Garm had the thought Luke whipped around, red rising on his face. Behind him Mara stepped off the scaffolding and a visibly embarrassed Luke jumped after her, both effortlessly landing on the hard plating twenty meters below.

It was like a spell had broken, his staff all returned to their chairs except for Yoda. Alone of them he had stayed in his seat, not watching. Well except for the holograms, Captains Kothari and Seagle looked a little put upon.

“Sorry about that, there was a little excitement in the Atrium.” He gathered up the flimsis in front of him, the best way to get past awkwardness was to ignore it. “Since we lost a little time there, I’ll skip to the bulk of the meeting. We’re as ready as we’re going to be, we need to start picking targets. The floor is open, what’s our next step to defeat the Empire?”


End file.
